The Hero's Heart
by baby-kitsune9
Summary: He didn't know where she came from, who she was or much of anything else really. All he knew was that her accidental involvement in his enemy's defeat may have very well saved his life. He owed her. And for even her accidental involvement, he would fight for her just as fiercely as he would have as All Might. How could he not when she had become his heart? Toshinori/fem Ichigo
1. Chapter 1

As far as first meetings and impressions went, their's was a phenomenal mix of bewilderment, panic, terror, dread and such utter helplessness and _outrage_... At least from where he was standing anyways.

He didn't know where she had come from.

To be perfectly honest, he hadn't expected a young girl barely any older than many of his students at U.A to randomly appear in the middle of a battle ground while he was facing off against his arch nemesis, All For One.

And from the odd way that she reacted. She obviously hadn't meant to land herself there either if the sudden shriek of anger that she let out was any indication at all.

"Dammit Kisuke! What post apocalyptic _hell_ did you stupidly drop me into?!"

To be fair, he didn't know who this 'Kisuke' person was. But if he had indeed _purposefully_ dropped her there, then he deserved every little bit of her ire. Or at least Toshinori thought so anyways as he anxiously tried to keep an eye on her- due to her present location dangerously close to his enemy- and an eye on All For One because he just knew that the bastard would go for her when she least expected it.

And true to form, All For One did go for her.

Toshinori shouted out a warning to her, but she seemed to still be disoriented and simply didn't know what he was shouting at her for until All For One had snatched her up by the back of the neck.

His massive hand easily cutting off her air supply and limiting her struggles as he dangled her up off of the ground, and lifted her up to where his face _should_ have been if Toshinori and his late master Nana hadn't have beaten him so damn badly ten years prior.

"Where did you come from?" He asked, his voice an infuriated growl as he seemed to be studying her. At first glance, the girl didn't seem like anything special. Not even to him. But there was simply something about her... Something that he couldn't quite put his finger on, but his well honed instincts kept buzzing with something akin to- "Power?"

Toshinori stiffened even more, if that was even possible and his breath left his lungs in a worried hiss as his electric blue eyes locked with the girl's own.

Her eyes...they looked so like his late Master's.

There was no fear in her that he could see. If anything she looked completely and utterly _pissed_ to have been grabbed by the neck by some jack wang for no reason whatsoever. She thrashed, and kicked and clawed at All For One's hand in an effort to get him to release her.

Or at least that was how it looked to him when all of a sudden she went totally still. Her arms slowly dropped and for all intents and purposes she looked as if she had either passed out from lack of air or simply expired.

And as afraid as Toshinori was about it being the latter, he didn't dare make any sudden moves just in case. One move from his enemy could easily decapitate her and then there would be no saving her at all.

Finally after what seemed like an eternity, the girl moved again. It was subtle. Definitely a sign that she was still alive. And Toshinori reacted to it like a man dying of starvation. His eyes seeming to latch onto the small movement before all hell broke loose.

And by all hell- he meant the reckless little spitfire hauled off and _blasted_ All For One in the shoulder with some sort of incredibly dense power beam that she shot from the tip of one of her fingers. The damage that the blast did to the villain was beyond startling. It was downright _grotesque_.

He and every other hero present watched as the villain's arm practically melted off of his torso. It fell to the ground as he let out a loud scream of pain at the same moment the girl deftly landed on the ground and then quickly flipped herself sideways to avoid being hit by his other arm as he lashed out at her.

_"Run!"_ Toshinori screamed at her realizing that the girl had given him an opening that he could exploit. After all, it wasn't as if his enemy could completely defend himself when he was in agony and down a limb.

She looked at him once she was a safe-ish distance from All For One but otherwise didn't move. He gritted his teeth and growled in irritation. Honestly what the hell was wrong with these damned kids nowadays? _Why the fuck do they never_ _listen?_ He wondered as he powered up, using what little bit of his strength that he had left to make another attempts at stopping the mad man.

In the aftermath of the Villain's defeat, he wound up looking for her. His eyes anxiously seeking her out, wondering if she needed medical attention or soemthing only to find that she was gone. Having slipped away while he had been catching his breath and taking his final bow as the Symbol of Peace.

It would be months before he saw her again.

* * *

Six months later-

Toshinori walked into the small café that he liked to frequent on specific days during the week for the food- like the vegetable soup, cheese cake, yogurts, muffins and ect. And occasionally the company as well. Despite his days as the Symbol of Peace being well over and done with, he still liked to visit with random people and make new friends if he could.

It was simply something that made him feel...more _connected_ to who he had once been. And it also gave him a sense of purpose that he previously didn't have before as All Might.

He stepped into the café fully intending to sit himself down somewhere and drink some tea and maybe even eat something while he wasted some time since today was one of his rare days off from teaching at U.A.

It was cool outside today. The weather beginning to transition from warm to a little bit cool which was normal for the early days of spring. And since it was cool outside today, he'd wound up wearing a jacket just to keep warm.

The moment that the workers behind the counter noticed him, they called out various friendly greetings to him, and he smiled and waved back as he meandered his way over to his usual spot in the corner over by the window. It was a nice cozy place that allowed him to see both the door and the people bustling around outside.

He often used the corner to quietly observe people for a little bit before randomly picking out someone to sit with and speak to. And often times the people that he observed were fairly entertaining too.

Some of them were really funny too.

For example, there was a ninety one year old woman that liked to come into the café and flirt with some of the waiters. She even had a perchance to sneak pinches on a few of the younger men's butts here and there. Which was always amusing because the young men would get all flustered and drop some stuff here and there. Then the owner of the café would walk over and chastise her.

And she would sass him about how if the boys didn't want their heinie's pinched then they shouldn't bend over close to her. It was a weird argument, but he couldn't help but laugh every time he heard it.

He had just claimed his seat when the small bell hanging over the door jingled, indicating that someone else had decided to come by the café and he paused in shrugging off his jacket so that he could get comfortable when he saw her.

His eyes widened a little bit and his heart started to beat faster in his chest as the workers called out a greeting to her as well. She paused for a moment, her expression just a little bit like a deer-caught-in-a-headlight before she slowly and awkwardly gave them a finger wave and a slightly strained looking smile before meandering over to a table not terribly far away from his own, and sitting down at it.

She looked..._different_ from the last time he'd seen her.

Not that he'd really noticed much about her appearance from before. At least not immediately. But since he'd seen the news footage and other various video recordings of his fight with All For One- he'd managed to get some really good pictures of her face and such so that it would be easier to search for her.

The police had some of them. And so did a few of the pro-heroes that he worked with at U.A.

And yet despite the wide net he'd cast in his efforts to find her, here she was. Waltzing right back into his life like she had before. Only this time, he had absolutely no intention of letting her vanish on him again.

"Ah Ichigo! What are you doing out of school already?" One of the waiters asked as he walked over with a menu for her. Toshinori frowned a little bit and pretended to look elsewhere lest he give himself away as she said,

"How many times do I have to tell you that I don't go to school."

"But you're just a kid. Why wouldn't you go to school?"

"Because I'm in my twenties. And I'm very tired of people making the same assumptions about my age," She said as she leaned her head back a little bit. The waiter smiled at her and asked her if she wanted her usual. And she replied, "_Yes_. Make the coffee as black as my soul."

Which made the waiter laugh and shake his head as he walked off to leave her alone for a little bit. The moment that he was gone, she took a moment to pull out a wallet and quickly check it to make sure that she had enough money for her...soul black coffee? Plus whatever else she might have been interested in before then replacing it and sighing.

She looked tired and a little bit worn down to him. Signs of exhaustion etched clearly in her features. Which might have contributed some to her..._differences _in appearance to him. But not entirely. No, another reason that she seemed to look different to him was because she had altered her physical appearance some.

She still had the same face.

Hauntingly lovely, and delicate features. Wide exotic garnet red eyes, just a little bit darker than his student, Bakago's. Her once shoulder length strawberry blond hair had grown out to the middle of her back and had been dyed a pretty blue black color. Even the style was different from before.

Whereas she's had a cute bob style before, she now had a fetching long mullet style that hung prettily around her face and in wispy layers that curled slightly at the tips, down her back.

She looked to have lost some weight as well. Not so much that she was a waling skeleton like himself, but still enough to be slightly alarming to him. _Was she not taking care of herself?_ He wondered as another waiter came over to take his order.

He asked for a peach and hibiscus tea blend and a mix of some blueberry, banana nut, cranberry orange muffins with a side of butter. And before the young man taking his order could walk off, he stopped him by placing a hand on his arm. "Gin, do you know that young lady sitting over there?" He asked curiously.

Gin looked towards her for a moment before frowning and nodding his head. "Yeah, that's Ichigo. Not sure what her last name is...but she's been pretty regular these last few months. S-She's a sweet girl. Ya know how three months ago, Kathy was almost robbed by some thugs?"

Toshinori nodded his head, recalling the incident quite well. Kathy was the café owner's young wife. She'd been nearly five months pregnant at the time when some ruffians had decided to try and rob her. He didn't know all of the specific details of the incident, but from the way that Gin was speaking he believed that it was fairly safe to assume that Ichigo must have had something to do with Kathy returning home safe and unharmed that night.

"Well- no one knows this except for the boss, Kathy, myself and maybe one or two others who work here. But apparently Kathy wasn't nearly robbed in an alley. The thugs that grabbed her, dragged her a block away, into an old condemned building. They were armed with guns too."

"Guns?"

Gin nodded soberly and leaned down a little bit to tell him the rest of the story, "Apparently they were planning to kill Kathy once they robbed her. Ichigo mentioned to her that she'd seen her get grabbed so she followed them to the building where she found Kathy about to be killed. Kathy said that one of the guys shot her three times-"

"Kathy!"

"What? No!_ Ichigo_. Now hush!" Gin snapped at him causing Toshinori to quickly place his hands over his mouth and not make another sound so that he could hear the rest of the story. "Anyways, after she disarmed and beat the thugs up. She walked Kathy home to make sure that she made it safely. But soon after that she collapsed a little ways away from here due to blood loss. She nearly bled to death on the sidewalk before anyone even found her."

Toshinori didn't think that he could take hearing anymore for the moment. He was just...aghast by what he'd just been told. If he had known that the girl was anywhere nearby long before now- he could have _protected_ her from being hurt in the first place. But if he had...Kathy and her baby would both be dead now. Wouldn't they?

"That's horrible..."

"Yeah. But just the same, everyone's grateful to Ichigo for saving Kathy. And Old Kath keeps referring to her as her new favorite hero." Gin said with a wink before he decided to go and put his order in. Toshinori waved him off and resumed watching the girl for a time.

Even when both of their orders were brought out to them, he still watched her.

She hadn't bothered to order any food, though some sandwiches still wound up on a plate on her table. Courtesy of the café owner, most likely.

She had been sitting at her table for the better part of an hour, drinking her coffee and nibbling on her free food when someone, the owner's wife Kathy, came rushing over and practically pounced on her. The girl let out a weird little yelp as Kathy practically flopped down in her lap and wound her arms around her neck.

"Hello my hero!"

"H-Hello Kathy."

"I'm so excited to see you! The baby will be coming soon and I wanted you to help me sort through some names."

"Shouldn't that be...uh, y-you're husband's job?"

"Oh don't worry, he won't mind any. Besides, he gets to veto anything totally outrageous that we might come up with."

"Then you should add a few sucky names to your list just for funsies."

"I know, right." Kathy said with a gleeful smile and then let out a little squeak as Ichigo abruptly stood up with her in her arms, not the least bit bothered or encumbered by the woman's heavier weight, and then gently deposited her in one of the spare seats and then pushed her plate of semi-untouched food towards her. "I'll never understand how you can do that." Kathy groused.

"Do what?" Ichigo asked as she slowly sat back down.

"How you can pick me up as if I'm some tiny little thing instead of a beached whale."

"You aren't a beached whale. And anyone who gives you that impression deserves to be _beaten_ black and blue."

"Aww. You know just what to say to make a woman blush." Kathy said playfully before then saying, "But that still doesn't explain how you can pick me up so easily. I weigh about two hundred pounds now." As she picked up an untouched sandwich and bit into it.

Ichigo hummed, not daring to make any comment about the woman's present weight since she knew very well about the traps that some pregnant women tended to set for entertainment purposes. Plus as much as she liked Kathy, she wasn't about to get herself punched for making her feel fat.

"So how do you do it? Is it part of you're quirk?"

"I don't have a quirk."

"Huh?" Kathy asked as she slowly chewed what was in her mouth as she frowned at the younger woman. "What do you mean you don't have a quirk?" She asked curiously.

Behind her Toshinori leaned forward in his seat a little bit while pretending to be messing with his stuff. His interest had already sort of been even more piqued than before by Ichigo when she'd stood up with Kathy in her arms. So naturally he wanted to hear what the girl said.

"Nope. No quirk. I was born with a few genetic..._conditions_. One naturally augments my physical strength to that beyond a normal persons. And another is...well, I have a terrible time with my pain receptors. Because of that, I've gotten hurt quite a bit and suffered from a _lot_ of internal and nerve damage."

"T-That's terrible! Can't the doctor's do anything to help you?"

"Nah," Ichigo replied with a slight shrug. "It was just the way that I was born. There's nothing to fix because there's technically nothing broken."

"I-Is that why- Before when those men were going to-" Kathy asked as she slowly reached out and put her hand on the girl's chest, right over her heart. "I saw you get shot. It didn't even seem to phase you."

"It's hard to be phased by something when you don't feel it like you should." Ichigo said gently as she reached up and removed the woman's hand from her. The lies were like acid on her tongue. But it was really the one of the few most believable stories that she could come up with as far as explaining some of her..._eccentricities_ to people.

After all, she couldn't say that she was augmented. People would think that she had something done to her illegally with prior knowledge or something when that was actually the farthest thing from the truth.

She had been augmented by her own natural abilities- without knowing- as well as Rukia's borrowed Soul Reaper power, her own, Kisuke's tinkering with her body without her knowing about it. And of course, Aizen's own tinkering. Because he was an insane and delusional mother fucker.

She also had one last body modification that she was trying desperately to hide at present so that she could appear more..._normal_. At least as far as she was concerned anyways.

It was something that had appeared gradually while she'd been integrating herself into society here. And she blamed Kisukue for it all the fucking way. Because there was just something about it that irked the shit out of her because it really did look like something that he might have done to her without her _knowledge_ or _consent_.

But in the days and weeks since her arrival in this strange new world, she'd grown black fur covered cat ears and a bloody_ tail. _Both of which irked her frigging endlessly because now she had even more issues on top of her usual issues. One of which was something that she was still having some difficulty understanding due to her very prominent humanity.

But according to the doctor that she'd managed to see earlier...the cat...stuff, apparently came with something a little extra. Something that she was sorely tempted to have removed so that she would never have to deal with the humiliation of it.

After all, how was she supposed to even fucking function if she wound up brushing up against someone of the male persuasion and liked them so much that she_ literally_ went into heat like a damned animal?

She could feel her face heating up from just the thought of it.

"Are you alright, Ichigo? You're face is pink." Kathy asked as she continued to munch on her pilfered sandwich as she stared at the girl.

Toshinori wouldn't swear to it, but he thought that he saw her hair twitch a little bit and cocked his head curiously as he squinted a little bit to see if he could see whatever it was that had moved underneath the dark silk strands. It was a little bit hard to tell at first, but after a moment or so he saw it. Black fur tipped ears were peeking out from underneath the girl's blue black hair a little bit.

_Wolf ears?_ He wondered as he blinked. They twitched a little bit again and he was hit by the sudden urge to hide a chuckle behind one of his hands. _No- she doesn't have wolf ears_. He thought in amusement as he tried desperately to hide his amusement. She had fucking cat ears. She probably had a tail too, though he couldn't see it anywhere because she probably had it hidden underneath her clothing or something.

Still, it would explain quite a bit about why he hadn't been able to find her up until now.

He'd described her to the others as a normal girl with _no_ extra appendages whatsoever. That was his bad. He should have thought that maybe she had some. After all, quirks and the like ran rampant among the masses. And the cat attributes did seem to be quirk related.

Though he didn't quite understand why she would lie about not having a quirk.

"Hey, Kathy do you know anything about...uh...c-cat's when they're in heat?" Ichigo asked as she nervously fidgeted with a napkin that was lying on the table next to her arm.

Toshinori suddenly sat up totally straight in his seat as his earlier humor fled him. Please god don't let her be asking because of the reason that he just thought of. He mentally chanted to himself. Because as much as animal based quirks were rare, the fact that people occasionally went into animal heat-like states was even _rarer_.

Like one out of every ten thousand people kind of rare.

However it did happen. And those people often times wound up suffering a great deal of damage if they weren't properly taken care of by someone who knew how to care for them. From a medical standpoint that was.

He'd had to arrest quite a few people during his hero career for sexually assaulting people in heat-like states because they were too out of their minds to properly consent to intercourse. Which at present was one of his main concerns for her.

"Cat's in heat? A little bit. Why? You planning to try breeding some rare cat's or something."

"N-No. Nothing like that. I'm..uh..g-going to be cat sitting a nice little cat that is about to go into it's first heat and I was wondering what I should do to make her more comfortable."

"Ah, alright. Well, let me see here. I only had a small amount of contact with cats in heat. But I do know that they're very vocal and tend to move around a lot meowing and yowling and stuff in an effort to call a tom to them. Also, they like rubbing themselves up against things. Almost as if their skin itches underneath their fur. They roll around and try to look...appealing?" Ichigo listened carefully as she picked up her coffee and started to take a sip when she heard Kathy say, "They also like being touched. They arch into it more than normal and even practically beg for it. They follow your hand almost desperately, kind of like their touch starved."

Ichigo wound up choking on her drink when it went down the wrong pipe and quickly had to set it aside. The mental images of her crying out and practically begging for someone to touch her was a little bit too...stimulating for her virgin mind.

She didn't_ like_ what her mind was showing her either. It made her feel...disgustingly slutty. And considering how old fashioned she was, that wasn't exactly a comfortable feeling.

"You know what- I think that I'll just look some stuff up on the net. I might be able to borrow a computer from one of my neighbors back at the apartment. So...uh, thanks." Ichigo suddenly said in a rush, not wanting to hear anymore.

"No problem." Kathy said as she watched the girl quickly pull her wallet out and start to place some money down on the table when she stopped her by simply saying. "Don't bother paying kid, your money's no good here. Also, we didn't bother to come up with any baby names."

"Anubus and Iris."

Kathy scrunched up her nose as Ichigo stood up and said, "Those names sound foreign."

"They are. Anubus is...the name of a god of the dead. And Iris is a really pretty, sweet smelling purple flower."

"Why name a kid after a god of the dead?"

"Because if I had a kid- I would genuinely want he/she to have a totally pant's pissingly terrifying name. I mean, like the kind that can simply send people fleeing from him/her in abject terror just hearing it."

"You're future son/daughter sounds like their going to have a lot of trouble making friends."

"They'll also spend quite a few years in therapy, but I'm totally fine with that." Ichigo said as she leaned over and gave the woman a quick kiss to her forehead before then saying, "I expect to see little Jamie the next time I come in here." And then walked away.

Toshinori quickly stood up from his seat and grabbed his jacket as he set some money down on the table and then hurried to catch the girl before she could disappear.


	2. Chapter 2

Catching up to her was easier than he'd expected it to be.

Especially given the fact that she hadn't bothered to go very far in the first place. Just to the corner grocery store where he more or less trailed after her at a discreet distance as she did some light shopping. If one could call buying a small mountain of raw red meat, fish fillets, several pounds of shrimp and some chicken. Some fruit and five tubs of chocolate and caramel toffee ice cream- light shopping.

None of which sounded utterly terrible.

But he was betting that she was planning to gorge and make herself sick with the ice cream since she was anxious about her upcoming heat and was probably wanting something familiar to help calm her.

It wouldn't have been a bad idea.

If not for the fact that the ice cream was dairy. And to his knowledge most older felines tended to be lactose intolerant. He wasn't sure if the same could be said for a lot of people with animal based quirks, so he was only making an educated guess here.

But some people tended to have more animal in them than human.

At the moment, she seemed like she were trying to figure out what she would need to get immidaitely. However because she seemed to know next to nothing about her feline needs, she was at a loss as to what to do.

He wanted to help her. To just walk up to her and hand her everything that he could possibly think of to help make things easier on her. But if he did so- he was fairly certain that she would bolt ad he might not find her again for another six months or more.

And that was completely _unacceptable_ to him.

Which begged the questions, how was he going to approach her? And how long did he have until her heat hit? She wasn't showing any immediate outward signs of it. So...days? Maybe a week or so?

That would have given him some wiggle room as far as preparations went. He already had some vague ideas as far as far as where he could place her to keep her safe during the duration of her heat. He had spare room at his home. And even some at Might Tower.

He could fix a nice comfortable place for her to stay at either one.

And it wasn't as if he'd take advantage of her. He pretty much didn't interact with people outside of simply speaking to them. And he generally kept any contact to an absolute minimum. He knew that that might be a little bit troublesome while she was in heat, but at the same time, she might also appreciate the distance.

Physically at least.

And he could ask Recovery Girl if she could maybe help him with any information that he was lacking. As well as some planning. Plus having another person who was expertly medically trained around- might go a long way as far as putting Ichigo at ease around him. After all, they were both _female_.

And Recovery Girl could easily toss him out of the house/tower if he accidentally did something wrong to upset her. Hell all she would have to do was brain him with her needle/cane and he'd be more than happy to leave the two alone for a while.

He was even perfectly fine with sleeping outside if he had too. As long as Ichigo was comfortable and taken care of, he didn't really care what happened to himself.

Once she had paid for her things and left the store, he followed her out- mentally berating and agonizing over the fact that he was basically stalking the poor girl as he followed her two blocks over to a not-so-great part of town. Where he watched in fascination as she took some time to feed some stray animals some of her recently bought hamburger meat that she'd gotten. As well as take the time out to hand some of the stuff that she'd bought to some people who looked as if they were living on the streets.

Honestly he'd never seen such deplorable conditions for so many people before. And he could tell that a lot of them weren't in the best of health, or even living well. They were covered in filth from head to toe, their hair was greasy and matted their clothing threadbare of stuck to their dirty skin.

Some of them were in such poor health that they were emaciated like himself. But even further along. Their skin stretched tight over fragile bone, their eyes and cheeks were so sunken in that they were hollow. But what scared him- really, really _scared_ him- was the fact that some of them were small children between the ages of eight and eleven.

His stomach, churned uncomfortably as bile burned the back of his throat and he had to blink away the tears that were threatening to well up and spill down his face. As he watched her take the fruit and some of the ice cream out of her bag along with a couple of containers of meat and hand them to the oldest of the kids and tell him what to do with them.

The boy nodded soberly and all of them took a moment to latch onto her and hug her. Their small voices spilling words of gratitude and thanks and she took a heartbeat or two to pat them all on the head and promise to bring them more soon.

How she could manage to muster up the strength it took to walk away from those tiny precious children, he would never know. It was more than obvious to him that she didn't want too. He could tell that something in her wanted to stay put and make sure that the kids were taken care of and made well again.

Maternal instinct perhaps?

He could already tell that she was a natural born caregiver. Which might explain a little bit about her reluctance to leave them. But then again, he couldn't imagine any sane person wanting to leave them in the cold in such a state to begin with.

He had already fished his cell phone out of his pocket and was rapidly typing out a text that he would send to several different pro-hero agencies to see if they would be okay with helping to get the children and the other homeless people off of the street and getting them medical care and such.

Since it was him, and his former pro-hero identity still carried a lot of clout, he doubted that anyone would really deny him this. Once the text was sent, he started to put his phone away when an automatic response chimed.

Curious, he lifted his cell up to eye level and let out an angry growl when he saw that Endeavor had already responded with a great big 'hell no'.

Okay he took it back, he didn't know anyone who would deny him _expect_ for that man. But then Endeavor was an asshole. So it wasn't an absolute surprise that he'd said no.

It didn't mean that it didn't _upset_ him quite a bit though.

No matter, he could be a jerk whenever he wished to as well and would take a great deal of pleasure dragging the man's pro-hero name and status through the mud on national TV for his denial.

Especially since he heard his phone chime a few more times and took a few moments to quickly scan the texts from some of the other pro-heroes and their agencies. They were totally on board with his plan and would be setting out to collect everyone once they arranged everything.

It would take an hour, maybe two tops since he'd told them that his request was a time sensitive issue. But hopefully within the next hour or so, the kids and the rest of the homeless would be on their way to a much safer and cleaner and possibly_ healthier_ location for them.

They would get taken care of, he silently vowed to himself. He'd see to it personally if he had to. And by removing them from the streets and seeing that they were cared for he had effectively given Ichigo one less thing to worry and stress over.

Slipping his phone back into his pants pocket as he started walking again, he was hard pressed to keep his eyes on the girl instead of the children. Part of him wanting to make sure that they were okay for himself. While part of him was chastising him for taking his eyes off of the girl even for a second.

After all, years and years of difficult and strenuous training as a hero couldn't be undone. And he knew better. However training and hindsight were two very different things. One could be controlled and the other...not so much. So when he turned the corner that he'd seen her take a few moment's prior and found himself suddenly being violently shoved back to the point where he fell, well...he didn't know what to make of it until he looked up at the irked girl's face.

"Eeek!" Was all that he could manage to get out before quickly flipping himself up and back onto his feet just in time to avoid her managing to actually injure him with a well placed punch that broke the pavement underneath her dainty little hand.

"I've had just about enough of you Mister," She growled as she pulled her hand up and away from the shattered stone and slowly stood to her full height as she demanded. "What the _hell_ do you think your doing following me?"

He looked at her, and then looked down at the damage that shed done to the pavement and then looked back at her again before making a split second decision. The first option he had here was running.

After all, he wasn't All Might anymore. Sure he still contained _some_ of the lasting vestiges of One for All. But that didn't necessarily mean that he wanted to get into a knock down drag out fist fight with the girl.

His other option was to throw himself at her feet and beg her forgiveness. Which would be more appropreate he supposed. However in his panic, he chose a little bit of both.

He turned and made an attempt to flee while shouting all kinds of panicked apologies and nearly knocked himself completely _unconscious_ when he ran right into a telephone poll head on and then hit the ground dazed and in pain. He was vaguely aware of the girl muttering a few choice oaths, her cat ears and tail visibly twitching in agitation as she practically stormed right up to him, and knelt down next to him, and then settled a small hand on one of his shoulders and growled at him to fucking _breathe. _

During which time Toshinori dazidly thought, that despite his initial 'fleeing' reaction to her anger, she seemed rather..._nice_. Maybe even a little bit sweet. However he was having a lot of trouble catching his breath at the moment, so it was just a tad bit difficult for him to manage a decent breath.

Something that must have alarmed her considerably since he could see her features soften somewhat before everything suddenly went dark on him.


	3. Chapter 3

Ichigo was torn between leaving her...stalker where he lay once he lost consciousness and feeling like an utter bitch for even considering such a thing when the poor guy was obviously hurt.

So, despite her common sense telling her that he could very well be a _serial killer_ of some sort and she should be wary of him- And having her inner Hollow flat out laugh at her for such stupid thoughts in the first damned place. After all, she was much, much _scarier_ than any serial killer running loose.

She still found herself cautiously picking the guy up and carefully slipping him up onto her shoulder so that she could carry him back to her place.

Which made carrying her groceries a little bit of an issue, especially given his height and weight. But not a terrible one that prevented her from actually managing. No matter how awkwardly.

She did have a little bit of an incident once she was back home. It was nothing major, not in the conventional sense. But she did accidentally shut her tail up in her apartment door and let out a loud, blood-curdling scream and very nearly _dropped_ both her stalker and her groceries in an effort to turn around and re open the door before she could collapse.

Honestly she felt like her fucking spine and the nerves in her tail were on _fire_.

It hurt so badly that she literally _cried_. And that was a very difficult thing for anything or anyone to even come close to _achieving._ Especially considering all of the crap that she'd seen, done, and experienced over the years.

_What's that torture? Sure peel the flesh from my fucking bones. It doesn't hurt a bit._ But growing a functioning tail, and slamming it in her apartment door on accident- bringing her to her knees when all of her enemies had never been able too... If her friends could see her now they would laugh themselves silly.

_Literally. _She was sure of it. Especially since a lot of them were total jerks without a single sympathetic bone in their damned bodies.

So once she was sure that she was going to be able to move without falling over, which took far,_ far_ longer than a minute or so. Around the time that the fire sensation died down to a painful throb- she finally moved through the small hallway and made her way to the living room. Where she carefully laid her stalker down on her couch and then turned and moved away to go and put her stuff up.

Once in the kitchen, she unpacked and put everything in it's designated place.

After which, she took a few moments to put her tea kettle on the stove to let the water heat up some. While she experimentally flicked her injured tail to see how badly she'd hurt it, and had to grit her teeth to bite back a growl when it felt like her bones were _grinding_ together.

_Damn that hurt!_ She thought as she moved to one of the cabinets in the kitchen to get some pain meds that she kept on hand for fevers and stuff. She'd had a nasty run in with a particularly vicious strain of the flu several months back that had taken her nearly two months to finally shake.

After that, she'd decided to keep some meds and stuff on hand, just to be on the safe side.

Grabbing the bottle, she quickly popped the top off and then tipped it over into her hand. And counted out three pills in her palm before she set the bottle aside on the counter.

She wouldn't dare to take any more than that no matter _what_ happened to her since her normal physiology had significantly changed _again_. That and she was fully aware of the fact that she could take some things much more safely than others.

But at this point a lot of her physical care boiled down to trial and error.

Still, she was going to be beyond pissed if her body shut down on her. Her regeneration ability wasn't exactly an absolute cure all. And it did occasionally seem to have a mind of it's own. Just enough to keep her alive. But maybe also enough to drive her crazy too.

She wished that she could blame Kisuke for that. But even she knew that it was her inner Hollow's fault. He really was the worst sadist that she'd ever had the displeasure of knowing. And that was saying a _lot_ considering who a majority of her friends were.

Popping the pills into her mouth, she didn't even bother to grab anything to drink. She chewed the tablets, making a face as she did so because of how terrible the pills tasted to her.

_Bleh_. She thought once she had managed to swallow them down. And then used her fingertips to clean her teeth of the residual powder that they had left behind so that she wouldn't wind up tasting them for hours afterwards. Once that was done, she put the lid back on the bottle and then pushed it aside so that she could wash her hands after which she decided to go and check on...her stalker.

Maybe she'd take some time to check his pockets for some sort of ID while she was at it. She had a very special _dislike_ for simply referring to the guy as her stalker. Especially since it implied all kinds of unsavory things and he'd...well, freaked out and tried to run from her and practically rendered himself helpless and unconscious in the process.

She didn't know many hardcore stalkers that did such things. Especially if they didn't want to get caught.

So either this guy was a super nervous nelly, a first time offender, or there was something else going on. Either way, she'd know in a minute.

Walking quietly over to the couch, she took a moment to study his features and couldn't help but inwardly cringe some at how.._fragile_ he looked to her. Honestly if not for his clean and warm-ish clothing she could easily mistake him for one of the homeless people that she tended to feed whenever she could.

He really wasn't in the best of health, that was for sure. Reaching out tentatively, she gently used her fingertips to tip his head back a little bit so that she could see him a little more clearly.

The poor guy was a mess.

There was a little bit of blood running down his chin from his mouth that she took a moment to wipe away with her thumb. Ignoring the strangely enticing smell that she was picking up from it since that was one of her new...irritants thanks to her feline attributes.

Humming softly she slowly removed her fingertips from his chin and eased his head back own into place and then huffed and seated herself on the coffee table and rested her elbows on her knees and muttered to herself, "What the hell do I do with you now?"

She'd feel bad if he spent the rest of his life behind bars. Especially given his current state of health.

Part of her was arguing with herself that she couldn't just turn him over to the cops, he was _puny_. And somebody might really hurt him. Besides, that insane part of her continued to argue- his bangs reminded her of bunny ears. It was fucking adorable.

It was at that point that she decided to check out for a little bit.

Because bunny ears- fucking _really?_

* * *

Awareness came back to him slowly and along with it the knowledge that he wasn't lying on the ground like before. As well as a multitude of other things. One of which was that the girl, Ichigo was sitting on a small coffee table next to him, staring blankly ahead as if she were in a trance of some sort.

Following that knowledge was questions. The usual mostly. Things like, how did he get where he was? Where was he? Who moved him? As strong as Ichigo had proven herself to be earlier when she'd lifted and moved Kathy without dropping her... He didn't exactly think that she would be able to move him without at least _dragging_ him.

After all, even in his present weakened state, he was still considerably heavier than normal. It was simply what happened when One for All modified it's vessel to prevent it from _easily_ breaking. As a result, his bones and muscle had become much denser and heavier than before.

And it remained so even now.

So even if she had somehow brought him here, he should be in considerably more pain than he was. Also, his breathing was oddly unencumbered. He also wasn't hacking up a lung either. So he supposed that that meant something too. He just didn't exactly know what.

Carefully moving a little bit to see how she would react since she hadn't have moved so much as a muscle since he'd opened his eyes, he was only slightly surprised to move one of his legs. And have her reach out in a lightening quick movement that was difficult for his eyes to track, and grabbed his ankle in one of her hands, stilling him as she blinked and then looked at him for a moment.

Her garnet eyes looked a lot like blood up close, and he couldn't help but wonder what she was thinking when she suddenly blurted out in an almost sullen tone. "Bunny ears my ass." And then released his ankle and stood up and started to walk off when her tail flicked itself into his face.

Right underneath his nose. Tickling his face badly enough to elicit several sneezes from him out of reflex as he watched her leave the room in bafflement.

_Bunny ears- what? _He wondered as he sniffled and used one hand to rub at his nose as he slowly sat up a little bit straighter on what he soon realized was a couch. Blinking once the realization hit him, he found himself wondering if he was in her home when he heard her messing around in the other room a second or so before he heard her call out to him, "Hey, stalker!"

He stiffened a little bit where he sat and hesitated for a moment to respond. But inevitably, he felt that he couldn't just sit there and be rude and ignore her. After all, she might want to ask him something important.

"Y-Yes."

"You're staying for dinner and tea," It wasn't a question. It was more like an order that was sort of phrased like a question before she seemed to decide to tell him what to expect. "I'm making stew and grilled cheese sandwiches. Are you a fan of plain veggie? Or something with meat in it?"

"Either is fine," He called back hesitantly before finally saying more to himself than her. "I'm...not really a picky eater." She poked her head around the corner and stared at him hard for a second before finally saying,

"That's good to know. Now come in here and park yourself at the island so that you can explain exactly what the hell you were following me for, while I fix the food."

He audibly gulped knowing that while there wasn't really any way around this particular conversation, it also was probably going to end with her calling the cops on him. He could hear his friend that was a police officer, laughing at him now.

Still...she did sort of deserve to know some things. And he didn't want to lie to her either.

"Yes, of course." He said slowly as he got to his feet and cautiously moved himself into the other room and immediately sat down where she'd said to and stayed quiet for several heart beats as she pulled a few things out of the fridge and placed them on the other side of the island, across from him. And then asked, "Where would you like me to start my explanation?"

"The beginning is always a good place."

"Yes, I suppose so. Just..." He paused to eye the knife that she pulled out of one of the drawers, warily. "Don't stab me..."

"I don't plan to stab you unless you give me a reason to." She said as she shot him a scowl as she quickly separated some carrots, celery, onion and a few other things from everything else, and then slowly started to cut them up while he tried to explain everything to her from beginning to end.


	4. Chapter 4

An hour later, she was staring at him with an confused look on her pretty face as her ears and tail flicked a little bit at the tips. Her garnet colored eyes were fixed on his face as if she were trying to gauge whether or not he were lying to her.

She exhaled and then slowly said, "Okay, let me get this straight. You're the big blond guy that fought that jerk that grabbed me six months ago." He nodded his head soberly in confirmation since he'd already shown her the video footage that he had saved up on his cell phone from the incident. _Including_ the close ups of her face that one of the reporters managed to catch on film.

"And you've been looking for me ever since the fight?"

He nodded his head again as he watched her face anxiously. Waiting for things to finally click into place for her so that she wouldn't seem so..._distraught_. He didn't like that this conversation was upsetting her. But figured that it was inevitable.

"But couldn't find me anywhere-" He didn't need to nod at that since it was pretty much self exclamatory. "And then today at the café, you found me again and decided that you weren't simply going to let me walk away from you _again_."

Okay, he felt a little bit incensed by the way that she had phrased her words there since it made him sound like an absolute jackass. But he was trying to let her completely understand everything without getting upset.

Which was a little bit of a difficult task, especially since she'd already told him that she had worried that he was a serial killer, and yes- he was a tad bit _angry_ about that. It was totally understandable. Especially from where she was standing. After all, she was a very beautiful young woman.

But it was nevertheless outrageous and irksome to him to be lumped in with such low lives.

"And you are also planning to...uh offer me a place to stay with you? For my heat?" She sounded a tad bit disturbed by this fact. And again, he could sort of understand her point of view. It sort of rankled though.

"That about sums it all up, yes." He finally said after a moment or two of silence.

She opened her mouth to say something, but then closed her mouth again and simply thinned her lips as she continued to stare at him completely baffled before then saying, "I-I don't know what to think about any of that. I mean, when I left the fight that day I never thought that I'd be searched for. Least of all by you of all people."

"I wanted to find you because I was _worried_ for you. I've looked for you myself whenever I could. I'd given your picture to other pro-heroes. And even the local police so that they could find you more easily. I didn't care how long it took or what state they would find you in as long as you were alive."

"But why? That's the part that I still can't seem to understand here. I'm _no one_ to you. You didn't know me, didn't know what kind of person that I am-"

"You helped, even if it was simply by accident, to defeat one of the most notorious and monstrous criminals in the known world. You gave me the opening that I needed to _stop_ him for good. And then you just disappeared as if you were a ghost. It doesn't matter to me if it was an accident or not- you're part of the reason that the world is a safer place today. You're probably a huge reason that I'm still even _alive_." He said fiercely. His electric blue eyes searching her face for something that he couldn't quite name.

"If nothing else, I owe you for you're help. And I want to _protect_ and _help_ you in any way that I can-" He was startled when he suddenly found her leaning across the island with her hand covering his mouth and she had a strangely panicked look in her garnet colored eyes.

"Don't say anything more about it," She said after a moment or so of silence. "I mean it. You don't owe me anything. And I don't need anything." She slowly started to remove her hand from his mouth, worried that he was going to finish what he'd started unknowingly.

Most people didn't know what a life debt was, but she was well versed in them thanks entirely to having a few of her friends swear their lives to her service both knowingly and unknowingly. So while she knew that he probably meant well and all, she wasn't going to let him unwittingly do the same.

Mostly because there was a very thin line between what was and wasn't allowed as far as life debts went. Most of which depended entirely on the person that had been sworn to.

But she'd made the shocking distinction between someone sworn to service and _slavery_ early on.

And she had absolutely _hated_ it.

She'd _hated_ lying awake in her bed most nights and worrying over the power that she wielded over others. She had _hated_ how sick she got whenever she accidentally gave an order. How much it had hurt her to try to avoid those things just to protect the others.

Their lives had been like _chains_ tightly wrapped around her very throat, constricting and slowly tightening with each and every event that had happened.

There had been a lot of bad days when she'd thought that she would finally, actually _suffocate_.

He waited until her hand was away from him before asking, "Why does it bother you so much that I want to-" He didn't get to finish his sentence because she'd grabbed a carrot and quickly stuffed it in his mouth and then shushed him. His teeth bit into the sliver with an audible crunch as he narrowed his eyes at her in annoyance as he chewed it.

"It's all well and good to want to help someone," She finally said after a heartbeat or so. "Really it is, but you don't walk up to a stranger- no matter how much you think you know about them- and swear yourself into a life debt. I mean, _really?_ Are you crazy?"

He swallowed what was in his mouth as he canted his head to the left a little bit and regarded her curiously. He'd heard of life debts before. It was an old school, cultural phenomenon mostly done amongst hardcore traditionalists in different cultures and yakuza nowadays.

Still, he knew what it was.

A life debt is a phenomenon in which someone whose life is saved or spared by another- becomes indebted or in some way _connected_ to their savior. A life debt sometimes involves a form of servitude. Possibly until the indebted can return the favor.

_No wonder she's worried_. He thought to himself as he carefully went over every minute detail that he knew about such things. Sure enough, his behavior was much like someone trying to swear themselves into another's service. And if not for the fact that he was used to serving others in one capacity or another, he might have actually been _alarmed_.

However the fact that she was trying to stop him from possibly making a monumentally grievous error simply made him even more stubbornly determined to do something for her.

"Ichigo-"

"The answer is no. Now drop it. I'm going to feed you something good that will maybe stick to your bones a little bit. And then afterwards I'm going to walk you to a safer part of town and then I'm going to bid you goodbye."

"No." He said before he could really stop himself as she started to check the stew to see if it was done yet.

She was overly anxious about getting rid of him. And he had this horrible sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach that if he left her now, he _really_ wouldn't ever find her again. She probably intended to send him on his merry way and then return here to pack up her things and leave.

"What?" She asked as her head snapped around so that she was looking at him again.

"I said no," He said firmly. "I'm not leaving you alone so that you can disappear."

"I-I'm not going to _disappear_! For gods sake do you think it's easy for someone like me to find a place to live at the drop of a hat?! Even in this god forsaken neighborhood- looking for a place that has a half decent rent is_ horrible_!" She said in an indignant tone.

He blinked at her, taken slightly aback by her sudden outburst before a chuckle bubbled up and he had to cover it with his hand to keep it from being heard by her.

He saw her cute little ears flick and quickly cleared his throat before he could be caught laughing at her as she turned her head to look at him again.

This time a little bit suspiciously.

He tried to keep a straight face. Truly he did. But it was somewhat difficult given how adorable she looked. She sort of had a mad kitten look to her at the moment that was making it increasingly hard for him to keep a straight face.

"B-Be that as it may. I refuse to leave you alone." He said in a stern tone. She gnashed her teeth and ferociously hissed at him, the fur on her tail practically standing on end as she did so, before abruptly turning back to the stew and glaring at it menacingly as she growled out.

"Fine. But you're sleeping on the couch."

He nearly fist pumped in triumph. _Yes, one small step forward. _Was he weird for being so excited about being given permission to sleep on a pretty girl's couch? He wondered as he propped his chin in his hand so that he could observe her while she finally set about making the grilled cheese sandwiches.


	5. Chapter 5

**This chap is a little bit..awkward.**

* * *

Dinner was wonderful, despite being weirdly quiet. Honestly, Toshinori couldn't recall a time when he'd been able to eat such good food without becoming sick or falling into a coughing fit. He'd managed to eat two bowls of stew and at least one and a half grilled cheeses.

And now here he was, still parked at her island, sucking on one of his fingers because it tasted like butter. It was kind of funny really. He had manners and all, but the second really good food was put in front of him it was like he regressed to a little boy. Messy table manners and all.

Ichigo didn't seem to mind any, which was great. Until...he caught her licking her own fingers. and then his manners kicked into to overtime and he quickly grabbed the dish towel that she'd used to carry his bowl over to him earlier, to prevent herself from being burned, and threw it at her face.

Just _anything_ to cover up that strangely misleading and erotic vision that she'd just unknowingly presented him with.

She let out an annoyed sound, but left the dish towel where it was, half draped over her face and kept licking her fingers until they were finally clean before then reaching up and tugging the towel off of her head and stared at him for a moment before saying, "Rude."

He made a non committal sound as he watched her stand up and collect both of their dishes.

"I can do that, if you want." He offered, trying to remember that he had manners and he should use them. Especially since he planned to make an utter nuisance of himself while he was with her.

"No."

"Why not? You cooked," He said as he stood up from his seat. "It's only fair."

"_Guests_ don't do the dishes." She said as she set the dishes down in the sink and started to run the water as he walked around the island and moved up behind her and then trapped her between his body and the counter. Causing her to stiffen up a little bit.

To be fair, he sort of did too. He hadn't realized how strangely intimate the action was until just now.

"Let me do them," He insisted in a soft, coaxing tone before then tacking on. "You're tired. You should go and sit back down and rest some."

She made a huffing sound and let her head fall back until it was pressed against his chest and muttered stubbornly, "Guests don't do the dishes."

"Well this one does." He said firmly as he used a hand to move her away from the sink.

She huffed again but didn't fight him anymore and just let him do as he wanted since it was simpler. While he was busy washing the dishes, she decided to leave the kitchen and go grab some spare blankets and pillows that she had lying around so that he could rest more comfortably on the couch later.

Keeping an ear out, just in case he accidentally hurt himself or something on one of the knives that she had in the sink- she went about collecting everything that she could think of that he might need to be comfortable. She gathered together two blankets of varying thickness and at least three of the fluffiest pillows that she owned.

She had some men's clothing that she'd bought a while back lying around too. But she was reluctant to part with any of those since they were comfortable. Still...she knew that he couldn't exactly sleep in his present clothes and be terribly comfortable. But at the same time- he was kind of irking her with his persistence.

Maybe if he suffered a really bad wedgie or something he'd leave and go home.

Well, she could hope so anyways. She mused to herself as she set the blankets and pillows down next to the couch and then looked it over with a critical eye. Trying to make sure that he'd even be able to _fit_ on it. He was rather tall. Or at least his legs were anyways.

She was so busy calculating his height as opposed to the couches length that she totally missed him stepping into the room to find her frowning at the couch. "Is something wrong?" He asked curiously. The sound of him suddenly speaking causing her to jump a little bit.

"I- uh...I-I think maybe you might be better off taking the bedroom." She said awkwardly after a moment or so of hesitation.

"Oh?" He asked as he studied her with a slightly confused expression. "What's wrong with the couch?"

"It's short." She said almost automatically, her expression darkening as she did so. His lips quirked a bit at the corners when he detected the smallest hint of a whine in her tone as her tail twitched in agitation.

His eyes flickered to the couch and he scrunched up his nose a little bit when he realized that she was right. It was short. So much so that if he tried to sleep on it tonight he'd probably hang half off of it. No matter though, he could deal. Besides, he wasn't the type of guy that could in good conscience take a young lady's bed from her.

"It's fine. I can sleep here easily." Which technically was both true and untrue. He _could_ sleep there easily. But he'd likely throw out his back or something while doing it. and he wasn't going to lie, that was going to be unpleasant for him especially on the days he taught at the school. But he'd still manage.

No pain, no gain. Right?

She looked up at him, her expression oddly solemn and looked as if she were about to tell him to take her bed again when he decided to nip this nonsense in the bud, and quickly moved over to the couch and grabbed her- eliciting a cute squeak from her- as he flopped himself down on it. And then settled her on his lap.

"_See_, I can sleep here easily." He said again as her face turned pink with embarrassment as her eyes went to his face.

He was feeling a tad bit smug about making her totally speechless when she grabbed a pillow that she'd collected for him to use and then promptly tried to smother him with it.

He let her get away with it for like a minute before he growled and then reached up and none too gently seized the tip of one of her furry ears and _tugged_ on it until she yelped and dropped the pillow. Once he'd managed to get her to stop trying to smother him, he released her ear while simultaneously removing the pillow from her reach.

"Do you always attack people when they try to help you?" He asked curiously as he watched her rub her sore ear for a moment as she glared at him.

"Only if they put me in their laps." She muttered almost sullenly, still embarrassed by being set in his lap like she were a domesticated animal or his girlfriend or something.

"Is there something wrong with my lap?" He asked, genuinely bewildered. Sure he knew that he didn't exactly have a lot of flesh to make him a very comfortable seat, but still. Was there something wrong with it? Or was this just one of those peculiar instances where her feline tendencies were making themselves known?

He hadn't meant to embarrass or upset her. It was just...with him occupying the couch space. What if she wanted to sit down and there was nowhere for her to do so? It wasn't as if she had a lot of chairs or anything that she could choose from. Her living room space was far too limited.

And he didn't want her to just sit on the floor. He'd feel bad.

"You're a guy." She said in an accusing tone as she gave him a pointed look.

He blinked at her for a moment, then opened his mouth to say something but then seemed to think better of it and shut his mouth again and simply stared at her strangely. As if he couldn't seem to wrap his mind around the fact that she'd pretty much just accused him of being a _male_.

Finally he just stammered out, "I-I'm sorry for being a...guy?"

She rolled her eyes and gave him a perturbed look and then slowly climbed off of his lap. Her every action now practically screaming of _wariness_.

_Of me? Why?_ He wondered uncomfortably. He knew that a lot of people tended to become uncomfortable and intimidated by him at one point or another, but having her feel that way hurt him. Like, really, really hurt him.

He felt as if All For One had just _punched_ his hand right through his torso and was attempting to tear out his remaining lung.

"Ichigo… A-Are you afraid of me?" He asked hesitantly once she was finally out of his lap and looking around her small living room for someplace else to sit. She visibly tensed up a little bit at his question and slowly turned her head to look at him over her shoulder before slowly replying.

"No. I'm not afraid of you." The little bit of relief he felt was instant. He could feel the tenseness leaving his shoulders a little bit.

"D-Do I make you uncomfortable then?" He asked before quickly tacking on. "You can tell me if I do. I won't be offended, I promise." That was a lie. He _would_ be offended. But he'd try to understand, for her sake anyways.

"You don't make me uncomfortable. I just- I-I'm just r-really awkward...around men." She said as her ears drooped a little bit and the tip of her tail flicked slowly behind her.

He stayed quiet for several moments as he mulled over her admission before finally asking curiously, "Why?" Hoping to god that nothing had happened to her to make her feel like she did when it came to men. Especially since it would make taking care of her during her heat considerably more difficult.

She didn't have an answer for him. So she just didn't say anything, choosing instead to simply leave the room and lock herself away in her bedroom.


	6. Chapter 6

He tried to coax her out after about an hour or so with promises of curling up and watching a movie or something so that she could take her mind off of things for a little while.

So what if she didn't even have a TV or a movie collection, lying about. He was determined and by god if he had to take her out and _buy_ her a damned TV and some movies- or even take her out to a _theater_\- then he would do so without hesitation.

Anything was better than the strange sinking feeling of anxiety that he was currently feeling at the moment because she had locked herself away from him. Finally deciding that he'd had enough of the silent treatment, he checked her door and found that it wasn't locked.

Which was strange since he was certain that any young lady in her right mind who was actually trying to give someone the brush off would have locked their door. Undeterred, he twisted the knob and opened the door a sliver to peek inside and took a moment to scan her bedroom for her.

She was lying, curled on her bed with a pillow tightly clutched to her chest and her eyes closed. She was asleep. Which explained why she hadn't been responding to him any. He knew that she had been tired before, despite her arguments otherwise. So perhaps her exhaustion had finally gotten to her?

Moving stealthily, or at least as stealthily as someone like him could- he gently pushed the door open a little bit more and entered the room to take care of removing her shoes and tucking her in. He was quick about it too since he didn't want to wake her up and have her scream bloody murder at him.

Once he finished doing that, he went and checked the window to make sure that it was locked and once he was satisfied that it was- he quietly left the room to go and...occupy himself with some things. He needed to contact those of his friends and colleagues that he'd contacted before to see if they had rounded up all of the people that he'd mentioned living on the street's earlier.

And then he needed to contact Nezu and Recovery Girl to tell them of his current situation and see what they thought. Maybe they could help him to get Ichigo to stay with him while she was in heat.

It was a long shot given how stubborn the girl was. But it was still worth a shot, right?

He spent the better part of two in a half hours after that, sitting on her couch alternating between phone calls, texts and checking out some of the pics that Aizawa, Mic, and Midnight had sent him of some of the kids that they'd found. All of them scrubbed clean, and wearing new clothing and were either curled up in their beds asleep or checking out the toys that they'd been given by the heroes.

One pic that Aizawa had sent him had a caption of, **Ha, better him than me**. And showed a little boy attached to a flustered Present Mic's leg, refusing to let go. His tiny face was positively glowing with happiness.

It was freaking adorable and Toshinori couldn't help the small laugh of amusement that escaped him. There were several other pics too. One was of Midnight getting herself made over by a couple of little girls who had managed to get their hands on some play make-up and some rubber bands.

The woman's face was a pallet of colors. And her hair! It was all wild looking braids and ponytails.

Someone had even managed to get a pic of Nezu being tackled and cuddled by a bunch of kids while he play screamed and tried to escape them before finally giving in to his inevitable fate.

Toshinori knew that the little fur ball was likely going to fuss at him endlessly for dragging him into such a situation. But that was alright since he knew that as much as Nezu seemed to dislike most humans- he had a nice soft spot for small children.

Even if they did take him hostage and cuddle him against his will.

It took some time for him to get Recovery Girl to respond to his inquiries about what to do to help an animal quirk based young lady get through her heat with a minimum amount of damage. Most of the time that she spent not responding to him was likely used to do research that could help him.

And in the end, when she finally did respond to his inquires; she did so with medical lingo, that he barely understood and various articles taken from some helpful stuff that she'd found online.

After that he spent several hours pouring over the articles, mentally filing bits and pieces of information away in the back of his mind for future reference, until it was well past two am in the morning.

Finally deciding to put his phone away so that he could get some sleep, he had just ditched his shirt, and shoes so that he could at least attempt to rest more comfortably. And not long after that, stretched out as much as he was able too on such a small couch, and tried to go to sleep.

His rest was fitful though, and didn't come easily. Partially because his legs were cramping and partially because of the noise both inside and outside of the apartment. Every time he heard something, he would almost swear that someone or something that wasn't supposed to be there- was.

It was...very disconcerting. Especially to someone like him who always tried to keep himself in a state of alertness even when resting. It was something that had helped serve to keep him alive after all these years, and as such it was more than a little bit difficult to shake. Much less ignore.

So after hours and hours of seemingly endless 'tossing and turning' he finally managed to doze off a bit just before sunrise.

* * *

Ichigo woke up feeling like crap and wanted to immediately go back to sleep. But the persistent and _vicious_ cramping in her stomach forced her into total wakefulness no matter what she wanted.

Rolling over onto her back, she tried to help ease her own discomfort by rubbing her stomach with one of her hands in the hopes that it might help. It did a little bit. But not by much.

Sighing heavily because she really didn't want to get up, she forced herself to do so anyways since she hadn't been expecting her monthly visitor to happen quite so soon and she wasn't wearing a pad. Slightly worried about the possible mess that she might currently be laying in, it took her several moments to really muster up the energy to even move an inch.

Despite the fact that she could smell her male guest's scent emanating from the room and couldn't exactly bring herself to leave her bedroom and make any sort of appearance to him while covered in her own blood.

She was pretty sure that the guy would freak the fuck out. And frankly, she wouldn't be able to blame him any. But she didn't want to accidentally cause him to drop dead of a heart attack, so...a trip to the bathroom and a nice warm shower were both desperately needed.

She could get herself cleaned up and hopefully wake up a little bit more and then greet the day.

She shuffled into the bathroom like a zombie and went about her morning routine. She used the bathroom, dug out some pads, and undressed and tossed her clothing into the basket stuffed in the small opening underneath the bathroom sink. Once that was done she took a few minutes to run the shower and adjust the water's temperature before then finally stepped into the shower and slumped a little bit against the wall.

_Why do I feel so damned tired?_ She wondered as she reached up to push her wet hair back from her face. She felt like she'd been run over by a runaway train. _Repeatedly_.

Her bones ached, her muscles hurt, she felt dizzy... Bracing a hand against the wall, she tried to get her bearings but everything only wound up spinning once she moved.

"Oh shit," She rasped out once she realized that she was about to collapse. She didn't have any time to grab onto anything or move herself to a less...unforgiving surface before her legs gave out and she fell to the floor of the shower in a heap. Her head smacking into the tile hard enough to cause stars to fill her vision before everything went black.

* * *

Toshinori heard the loud noise from the living room and automatically jerked himself awake in response to it and took a moment to scan the room before remembering where he was and why.

He was in Ichigo's apartment. And she was about to start going into heat.

Muttering a few choice words under his breath he pushed himself up and then climbed off of the couch so that he could go and investigate the source of the loud sound. He didn't expect her to be awake at..whatever time it currently was. So after checking the kitchen and living room areas for whatever could have made that loud sound he then made his way to her bedroom.

And to be perfectly honest he was too damned tired to bother with any niceties at the moment. So he didn't bother trying to knock before entering her bedroom.

Upon finding her bed empty some part of his brain seemed to kick into overdrive and_ worry_ flooded him along with a bit of fear. She couldn't have left the apartment without sneaking past him, and despite how much he needed to rest at the moment- he wasn't much of a heavy sleeper. So he was sure that he would have noticed her leaving if she did.

Moving around her bedroom he took the time to check her window- it was still locked- so that wasn't the source of the noise that he'd heard. And then he checked her closet and underneath her bed. He wasn't sure what to feel when his searches in both turned up empty.

Which only left...her bathroom.

Walking over to it, he took a moment to press his ear against the door to see if there was anything amiss and heard the shower running. Sighing slightly in relief, he pulled back from the door and then knocked.

"Ichigo? Hey, are you alright in there?" Maybe she had dropped a shampoo bottle or something and was worried to make anymore noise for fear of waking him. Maybe that was why she wasn't making any sound.

_Or..._ Some more logical part of his mind whispered ominously. _Something is wrong and she can't answer you. _

"Ichigo?" He said her name a little bit louder and then pressed his ear back to the door just in time to catch a muffled whimper. Gritting his teeth he moved back and a tad bit and then kicked the door in so that he could reach her. After all if something was really,_ really_ wrong then he couldn't just stand around and waste precious time.

The door came down far easier than it should have, but that didn't matter to him any. The second that it hit the floor, he stepped into the small bathroom and froze up for a second as he caught sight of her lying on the floor of the shower.

His heart thudded frantically in his chest in panic.

She looked...unconscious. Her skin was almost an sickly white shade.

_What's wrong with her?_ _Is she starting her heat?_ He wondered as his hands started to shake. He took a quick step forward, his breath escaped him in a long drawn out hiss as he dropped the floor next to the shower, and reached out almost hesitantly before slipping a large hand underneath her head and quickly tugged her up off of the floor.


	7. Chapter 7

To say that Toshinroi was frantic as he quickly wrapped Ichigo up in the covers from her bed, would be an understatement. Once he finished wrapping her naked body up, he collected her from the bed and then moved to the living room to grab his jacket and shoes.

He'd need his cell phone too, but not right this moment.

No- right now he needed to get Ichigo somewhere safe before others with animal based quirks smelled her and came looking with the intention of taking advantage of her.

The second that he was out of the apartment, he drew on what little bit of One for All that he still possessed, and changed forms knowing that he would have to move quickly to get her somewhere safe and as immediate as possible medical aid. Clutching her as tightly to his chest as he dared, he took off like a shot.

His feet pounding the pavement as he ran. Her might have tried to jump from point A to point B, but was reluctant to try for varying reasons.

The fact that the temp outside was cooler than it had been the past several days was one reason. And if he'd jumped, the temp would have dropped even more. And that could prove to be fatally bad for Ichigo due to the fact that she was still wet.

And while the blanket that he wrapped her in allowed for some protection- it wasn't the same for any exposed skin. His speed, coupled with the wind velocity could easily drop her current body temperature into hypothermia.

Another reason not to try jumping was that if he had, and she'd woken up. She would have been disoriented and confused and might have tried to escape him. And if she had succeeded in doing so- she would have _fallen_ hundreds if not thousands of feet to the ground before he could catch her.

And her odds of surviving such an occurrence at this moment in time was practical nil. He wasn't overly fond of having to watch her spatter all over whatever surface she hit when she fell either.

In fact, the mere_ thought_ of her falling from such a dangerous height and splattering all over the pavement turned his stomach with nausea. Luckily for him, he hadn't gone that route and besides it was far easier to stop running than it was to try and catch someone in midair.

Knowing the area like he did, he also knew that for her to get immediate medical care- he would have to either take her to a hospital (and there weren't any _right_ there, that would have been too convenient) U.A. or Might Tower.

U.A was a little ways away from the nearest hospital. And while he tended to trust them more when it came to someone's medical care- Might Tower was much closer, and he had a dozen or more people on his pay roll that could help Ichigo as soon as they got their hands on her.

That would allow her to get the treatment that she needed. A chance to get her condition stabilized and check her over for any injuries. And it would allow him some time to get things ready while he waited for her to be taken care of. At present, at the speed that he was tearing through the streets- it would take him seven minutes to reach there.

Once that was accomplished it would take an additional two in a half minutes to get her to medical and hand her over. And he had at least ten minutes of use in his muscle form.

The fight six months ago had cut his ability to use his muscle form down to practically thirty minutes a day, if he was really lucky. Instead of his already dwindling hour or two.

Feeling Ichigo twitch a little bit in his grasp, he looked down at her for a moment and noted that she was trying to press her face closer to his chest. Why? He didn't know, but he still brought a hand up to cup the back of her head and help her a little bit by adjusting her so that she could press her face against the side of his neck instead.

Upon reaching Might Tower, he blew through the front door, and past the reception desk and up the stairs before anyone even realized that he was there. Though it would be difficult for them _not_ to know that he was there given the way that he tended to make mini tornados when he moved at such high speeds.

It didn't even take two minutes to get up the stairs to the medical floor since he was moving so fast, and once there, he finally allowed himself to slow down enough not to make any All Might sized tornados. Which was good since it made it easier for the nurses employed by him to see him and the fact that he was carrying _someone_ and move to help him.

After that there was a flurry of activity that even he had some difficulty keeping track of.

Ichigo was taken from him and laid out on a gurney, and an IV was quickly hooked up to her as several doctors came bustling over to begin checking her. A few of them fired questions at him. Things like- What's her age? Blood type? She has an animal based quirk? Any prior health conditions? Is she pregnant?

He didn't know her age aside form what he'd over heard earlier yesterday about her being in her twenties. And he didn't know if she was pregnant- though the fact that she was possibly going into heat strongly indicated that she probably wasn't. Prior medical conditions? Well, he hadn't exactly had a whole lot of time to ask her stuff and bond. So he had no idea.

But he did answer what he could about her animal based quirk.

Which was considerably more helpful than even he realized. Not long after that, Ichigo was taken back to a room and he was politely, yet firmly asked to stay where he was so that the doctors and nurses could do their jobs.

* * *

The doctor moved away from the young lady that All Might had brought in and glanced at the clock hanging on the wall for a moment before finally tugging his mask and gloves off and then quickly telling everyone to get the hell out.

Everyone exchanged a troubled glance with one another, understanding all too well why the man was in a mood and then quickly exited the treatment room. All of them practically fleeing in different directions the second that they were out the door.

All Might had really done it this time.

He'd _literally_ dropped a physiological time bomb in their laps. The doctor thought grimly as he took a moment or so to check the woman's blood pressure one last time. Once he was satisfied that it was good, he set his tools aside and then left the room to go and inform the former hero of just what the hell he'd found since he was pretty sure that he had no idea about what he'd stumbled upon.

_God help us all_.

The former hero was going to undoubtedly pissed at what the doctor had found. And even more so once he managed to lay all of his findings out for him to see. And to be honest, the man didn't see any part of this upcoming conversation that didn't possibly end with the former pro-hero possibly being held back by more than one person.

He was just going to be that alarmingly _pissed_. It wouldn't surprise the doctor any if the police and some of the other heroes had to get involved either.

After all, body modifications were illegal for a reason. And the young woman that All Might had carried in had been modified_ several_ times. Possibly unwillingly since he had found there extreme signs of abuse and other things as well.


	8. Chapter 8

Toshinroi did everything that he could think of to occupy himself while the medical staff took care of Ichigo. He had contacted Nezu, and Recovery Girl. He had checked on the homeless people and the kids that he'd asked to have picked up to make sure that they were still doing okay.

And smiled a little bit despite his worries when he saw a couple of texts about a couple of kids loosing a tooth and getting five bucks (courtesy of Mic) and some butterscotch hard candy (courtesy of Midnight) and a couple of cute stuffed rabbits (courtesy of Aizawa).

He tried to keep from becoming anxious, truely he did. But the longer it took for someone to come out and tell him something, the more anxious and restless he became.

Which was why he was just a tad bit alarmed when after almost two hours, the nurses and all of the doctors excpt for one rushed out fo the treatment room- totally ignored his presence- and fled the immediate area as if they were afraid of something.

Slowly getting to his feet, he frowned as the last of the medical staff vanished and took a shaky breath once it hit him that something must be wrong. Like really,_ really_ fucking wrong.

So wrong that everyone would rather leave their posts their stay put and _face_ him.

Feeling his anxiety spike ominously, he stood there not knowing what to do with himself now and tried to be patient when the remaining doctor finally walked out of the room where Ichigo was, his expression looking like a goddamned thundercloud was hanging over his head as he walked up to him and simply said.

"My office. _Now_."

Toshinori's eye's widened a little bit at the man's angry tone and he took a second to cast a questioning look back towards the treatment room. Almost as if he were wondering what Ichigo had done to upset the doctor to the point he'd take his temper out on him. And then he realized he was being ridiculous for thinking such a thing and he started walking after the man. Whom, while in his snit, had decided not to even bother to wait for him.

Walking down the hall a little bit to the man's office Toshinori entered it in time to see the man pouring himself a drink of brandy as he loosened his tie.

"Is everything alright?" He asked as he hesitantly stepped into the office and wondered for a moment if he should shut the door when the guy said.

"No. No everything is not all right."

Fearful that Ichigo was in worse shape than he had initially thought that she was, he started to turn around and leave to go and see her for himself when the doctor finally said, "You need to sit down, sir."

The tone he was using had the distinct bite of underlying outrage to it that made him worry. It was the kind of tone that doctors used when they're pissed about finding something abnormal.

It was really putting him on edge.

"What's going on?" Toshinori asked anxiously as he slowly sank into one of the chairs across the desk from the man as he tossed back his drink before setting his glass aside and then turning his full attention to him.

"Tell me everything that you know about the young woman that you carried here." It wasn't a question or request. It was a demand.

Toshinori frowned and told him everything that he could think of about her. Things that he'd overheard at the café, things like her temper and personality, how she was a good cook. He doubted that the doctor really wanted such trivial information but it was really all that he had to tell for the moment.

So once he was finished the man eyed him almost suspiciously and then heaved a sigh and asked, "That's it? That's all that you know about her?"

"Yes. We just met for the second time yesterday."

"I see." The man said in disappointment before then scrubbing his face with his hands and saying, "I need you to listen to me very carefully and call Principal Nezu, Eraserhead, and your friend from the local police force. We need them _here_ for the rest of this talk."

"W-Why? What has Ichigo-" Toshinori started to ask what the girl could have done, but the doctor held his hand up and silence his question.

"She hasn't done anything that I'm aware of. It's more like...what was done to _her._"

Feeling as if he'd just been punched on his injured side, Toshinori's hands trembled a little bit as he pulled his cell phone out and called everyone mentioned and asked them to come to Might Tower.

His mind was consumed with so many scenarios as to what the doctor's words could mean, that he barely noticed when he started to have a panic attack until the doctor moved to kneel in front of him and told him to breathe.

Everything was going to be fine. They would sort things out.

It was in that moment that Toshinori felt the nearly overwhelming urge to grab the man by the front of his shirt and snarl that he was a fucking _liar_. Not long after that the doctor left the room to go and get some things- files and such about what he'd found. Leaving him to his own vices for a time.

Toshinori wasn't sure how long he stayed like that, but it must have been a while since everyone pretty much showed up at the same time. His friends Aizawa and Naomasa were the first to notice his state. But Naomasa was the only one to _try_ and immediately approach him.

His concern apparently outweighed his common sense. Not that Toshinori would hurt him. But he wasn't exactly himself at the moment.

"Toshi! Toshiori, what's wrong?" Naomasa asked as he took one of his hands in his own to get his friend's attention. It worked. Toshinori lifted his head to look at him, but his expression was oddly _blank_. Which was never a good thing from Naomasa's experience with the blond man.

Aizawa was the next person to move close to him, though he didn't do anything but give the blond man a brief shoulder squeeze to let him know that if he needed anything, he could come to him.

Nezu didn't seem overly concerned about Toshinori's mental state. Though he was somewhat had to read due to the fur and stuff. He did however brush by the blond, and allow him to reach out absently and lightly run his slender fingertips along the fur between his ears. Because Toshinori tended to do that when he was upset, and had confessed once that it made him feel just a little bit better to do so.

Which was the _only_ reason why Nezu allowed it.

Not long after they had all joined him, the doctor came back with file clutched in one hand, looking just a tad bit flustered. "Is everyone here?" He asked as he scanned their faces, as if double checking before nodding to himself and entering the office and shut the door behind him. "Forgive the impromptu meeting, gentlemen. However I had Mr. Yagi call you all here for a reason..." The doctor said as he moved over to his seat as Aizawa asked in a lightly angry tone,

"What's wrong with Toshi?"

The doctor stopped for a moment and let his gaze flicker to the blond before frowning and saying, "He's...upset. Which is kind of understandable. He's..._concerned_ about the young lady that he brought in earlier. However I found some things when I examined her that...may possibly need to be looked into by a pro-hero or someone who works with the police."

"What kind of things?" Nezu asked curiously.

"Well...uh..." The doctor started to say as his eyes flitted to Toshinori for a moment before nervously leaning forward some and asking Naomasa to keep a tight hold of the blond just in case he got mad. He really, _really_ didn't want his boss lunging across the room for his throat just because he informed them all of something that he didn't like. Once he was sure that the officer had a decent hold onto one of the blond man's shoulders, he started talking again. "Anyways...when I examined the young lady- I did so under the assumption that she had an animal based quirk. However she _doesn't _have a quirk. Animal or otherwise. Which...didn't exactly explain her animal-like ears and tail and her heat cycle so I decided to check some things using my quirk."

"Now, before I go any further here, my quirk is a lot like being able to x-ray the human body and it allows me to see everything. Scar tissue, fractures and broken bones, trauma to a person's organs, body modifications-_ I can see it all._ Which is why I've asked Mr. Yagi to call all of you here..."

"I-I found a _lot_ of stuff. Terrible stuff. Much of it is consistent with years of physical abuse, assaults, some forms of excessive combat training- but the worst of it. The worst of it has to do with the _multiple_ modifications that she's undergone."

"She's had modifications done?" Toshinori asked as he leaned forward a little bit in his seat. His eyes had just taken on a freakishly scary cold and lifeless look that made the doctor nearly start sweating bullets as he eyed him nervously, and he slowly said.

"To be fair, a lot of those modifications look as if they were done...without consent. Some of them even looked as if they had been done when she was a lot younger. Like in her early teens, younger."

Toshinori suddenly stood up, causing the doctor to let out a terrified scream and quickly dive for cover behind his desk as the blond shook off Naomasa's hand and headed for the door. If someone had modified Ichigo, then he wanted to hear what happened from her own lips.

And then once he had the whole story, he was going to hunt down whoever had _dared_ to mess with such a sweet girl. And he was going to rip out their spines and skull fuck them with them.


	9. Chapter 9

Ichigo looked as if she were slowly stirring when he entered the treatment room and sidled up to the bed that she was lying on. Taking a moment to look her over, absently noting that she was dressed in a soft purple cotton gown now. And was tucked into the bed underneath a thin blanket so that she wouldn't get too overheated.

Her eyes fluttered for a second as he reached out and gently cupped the side of her face in his large hand and whispered in an insistent tone, "Wake up, Ichigo. I need you to open your eyes and tell me what happened."

"Tell? What?" She asked in a slurred tone that made him wonder if perhaps she was on pain killers of some kind. She probably was since she was burning up and barely coherent. And for a moment he wondered if he should just leave her alone. However he needed answers and pain killers were notorious for making people..._chatty_.

Sort of like taking a shot of truth serum or being roofied.

So after taking a moment to weigh the pro's and con's, he decided to go ahead only because if she had been non consensually modified, then she could be in _danger_ from the person/person's responsible. Especially if they decided that they wanted to grab her again for further modifications.

"Did someone modify your body? Without your consent?" He asked feeling strangely as if he were slowly drowning.

She moaned leaned her face into his hand and purred softly for a moment before muttering a weak sounding, "Hurts..."

Swallowing past the lump in his throat at the admission, he tried again, praying that she actually answered him this time so that he didn't have to ask her again. She really didn't look as if she were doing too well.

"Did someone do something to you? Modify you?" He waited a heartbeat or two after asking his questions for her to answer. And when she finally did, he nearly broke down crying. Really he did, because he couldn't imagine how _scared_ and_ horrified_ and just plain _hurt_ she must have been before, during, and after the modifications were done.

Had she woken up in a cell? A hospital room?

Had someone been there to help her? Or had she been completely alone?

_Just what the fuck had happened to you? _He wondered as he leaned over and rested his forehead against her own for several moments while he tried to calm the rage burning through him, down.

Her breath was coming out in soft pants, and her skin felt as if it were on _fire_ against his own. Honestly it was alarming since he didn't think that it was normal for someone to be quite so damned hot to the touch. But then again, his knowledge of everything was limited.

She muttered about hurting again, her tone bordering on a pained whine and he felt his heart clench painfully in his chest as he slowly lifted his head and straightened his spine. He'd see if the doctor could give her something for her...uh... If she didn't have an animal based quirk; then could she really be in heat? Or was her body simply that messed up? He wondered curiously as he quickly left the room to see about getting some more answers.

* * *

"So basically, she's more animal than human now?" He heard Nezu ask as he quietly slipped back into the doctor's office.

"Yes. Essentially. I mean, she's still human enough to be able to reason and think like us. But she's probably more instinctually driven now. Which is probably more than a little bit disconcerting to her considering that she started out as an ordinary human." The doctor explained.

"And her present condition? What can you tell us about it?"

"W-Well... To be perfectly honest, she's in heat. However unlike someone with an animal based quirk, her cycle isn't going to just last a few days to a week. It's going to last _months_. Two maybe three in total. During which time she'll feel the nearly overwhelming urge to copulate and beget offspring."

"Is there any way to help her?"

"I honestly don't think there is," The doctor confessed nervously, his eyes locking on Toshinori as the man hung back at the door as he continued to say. "Pain meds would barely be effective. Hardly enough to even take the edge off anyways. A medically induced coma could save her from suffering too much, but we'd have to keep her under most of the year for the rest of her life. And frankly that isn't any way for anyone to live." The doctor sighed before going on to say, "The only truly effective manner to really _stop_ it at this point, and cut down on the damage that she would suffer from it in the long term- Is to lock her in a room with someone and _let_ them go at it like bunnies. The heat would probably end once she is impregnated and then after that she wouldn't have another heat for a year or so."

Toshinori nearly coughed up a pint of blood upon hearing that.

Not because he didn't think it would work. But because Ichigo was a truly sweet girl and anyone would be lucky to have someone like her. And the fact that she was _actually_ in heat and would probably become a little bit hormonally crazed from it- just about killed him.

Especially since he was now barely a broken shadow of man and hardly _appealing_ at anyone. Sexually or otherwise. And thus couldn't be of any use to her.

The second that those thoughts flitted through his mind, he internally cringed a little bit and wondered where those thoughts had even come from. He couldn't remember a time he'd ever really bothered to look at a woman with any sort of desire for anything long term. Aside from maybe being friends. Sure he'd had a few girlfriends over the years. But none of them had been serious.

He'd certainly never bothered to look at a woman as a potential life mate.

So why think about those things now? Why Ichigo?

He felt so unbelievably confused right then that he didn't know what to think of anything anymore.

"If she's actually in heat, then she isn't coherent enough to make a rational choice about how she is treated during her...cycle. And frankly, we can't allow it while she's in her current state anyways." Nezu said, trying to be as delicate as he could.

Beside him, Aizawa nodded his head soberly, the idea of locking some hormone driven creep in a room with the girl while she was defenseless and unable to say yea or nay _irked_ him to no end. If there was genuinely a decision between leaving the girl to be bred until her heat ended, and putting her in a medically induced coma- then he'd walk.

There was no way that he could consciously be a part of something so potentially damaging to someone else.

"She'll regain her coherency. I'm fairly certain of it," The doctor said. "It'll just take a few hours. Maybe a day or so, and after that- once her body begins to adjust to her new state a little bit more, then she'll be aware and rational enough to make a choice as to how she's taken care of."

"And if she decides that she wants to copulate? Who will take care of her?"

"There's a lot of single men present here at Might Tower that are looking for a nice girl to settle down with-" The doctor said and everyone practically jumped when Toshinori suddenly shouted,

"No!"

All eyes went to the blond for a moment as the doctor quickly hid behind his desk again. Not that anyone could really blame the man any. All of them knew that Toshinori had a temper. And could go from calm to flat out_ livid_ in the span of zero point two seconds.

So the fact that the blond looked so pissed at the turn in everyone's conversation, naturally had them a little bit..._twitchy_.

"Toshi?" Nezu said questioningly. Curious to know why the man had decided to interrupt their planning.

"If she decides to copulate- then she can use me." Toshinroi said despite the fact that he felt like being sick. This wasn't the best idea that he'd ever had. But even he knew that she wouldn't be satisfied with just anyone. If she really decided to copulate then she would need someone who would carefully consider what she needed at _all_ times. There could be no quick roll between the sheets and then walking away once sated.

It would be cruel to put her with someone like that.

She would also need someone with the stamina to keep up with her. First hand knowledge with sex would also be helpful. Whoever she copulated with would also have to have a safe and easily defended home for her and any child concieved. A place where they would be completely protected.

Combat training and experience would be _necessary_ as well.

The initial shock of his words wore off slowly. But when they did, Aizawa practically growled out as his eyes flashed red, _"The fuck?!" _Causing the doctor to scream and hide behind his desk again along with Nezu whom had apparently slipped form his seat at some point and decided to hide to avoid the inevitable explosion from Aizawa.

"Hello!" Nezu said cheerfully next to him as he peeked over the top of the desk.

The doctor blanched at seeing the mutant animal there and then practically started crying. What was it with heroes and their tempers? Why couldn't he ever work for someone who never flipped out at all?

"Are we going to die?" The doctor sobbed out. Nezu smiled at him and reached out to put a paw against his shoulder and then said in a totally unrepentant tone,

"Probably." He employed scary people for a reason, after all.

"Speak for yourselves," Naomasa grunted out as he came crawling around the corner of the desk on his stomach. "I say that we flip the desk at the two of them and then run like hell for the window in the confusion."

"We're twelve floors up." Nezu pointed out.

Naomasa shrugged and said, "No plan is perfect."

"B-But what about the conversation?" The doctor sniffled. Distressed at the way the situation had seemed to snowball.

"Let the two of them sort that out while we escape." The man said grimly.

"You people are crazy!" The doctor cried as both Nezu and Naomasa exchanged a look and both shrugged, it wasn't as if the doc was wrong. So why argue otherwise? Either way, they needed to get out of the building before Toshinori and Aizawa started trading blows.


	10. Chapter 10

Ichigo's ability to rebound from just about anything medical was one of the most mind boggling things about her. Honestly, a lot of her friends used to tease her about her 'legendary' ability to nearly die and still get up barely five minutes later and beat the ever loving shit out of _everyone_.

So really it didn't surprise her all that much when several minutes after Toshinori had left her to sleep, her body seemed to finally reboot itself to the point where her temperature dropped, and she was able to wake up enough to realize that she wasn't in her home.

She wasn't sure exactly where she was. And yes- she was curious. However the gown, the bed, the IV stand and various pieces of machinery around her pretty much told her everything that she needed to immediately know. She either was or wasn't in a hospital or clinic of some kind.

And since she couldn't really recall much of anything aside from feeling like shit and falling...then the fact that she was wherever she was made a lot of sense to her. So once she was absolutely certain that she could manage to get up without falling flat on her face, that's what she did.

She sat up in the bed and took a moment or so to unhook herself from any machinery attacher to her, as well as remove the IV from her arm, and then pushed the covers back so that she could make an attempt at standing.

She still wasn't feeling so great. Her skin was still too warm to be comfortable, but at least it was far more manageable now. And her stomach was still cramping pretty badly and her nipples and nether region were both _aching_ in an unfamiliar and very disconcerting way.

Slipping her legs over the side of the bed, she set her feet on the floor and slowly pushed herself up and automatically felt something wet and sticky slide down her legs. Staring down at the mess as it dripped onto the floor to make a small puddle at her feet, her face warmed up even more in mortification.

_Oh dear god no!_ She thought in a slight panic. Please, please, please don't let her have just _wet_ herself.

She could take a lot of punishment and indignity but she drew the line at pissing herself like a baby. Especially if she were in a place where things needed to be _sterile_. For fuck's sake, germs killed people!

Feeling disgusted with herself for...that. She scrunched up her nose and made a face as some more made it's way down her legs._ Shit,_ she needed a bathroom or something so that she could clean that crap up. Like now.

Scrubbing her face with her hands in an effort to try and block out everything for a second, she mentally prepared herself for what was definitely going to be a 'walk of shame' for her to the ladies room before she even bothered to make her way to the door.

The one good thing about where she was, she noted right off the bat- was the fact that it was seemingly abandoned. _Seemingly_, being the operative word here. Because despite the fact that there was no one present in any of the other rooms, nor at any of the sparsely spread out desks located here and there- she could hear people shouting at each other.

And because she felt like she needed the ladies room or a fucking adult diaper rather desperately, she had no qualms whatsoever about interrupting whoever was shouting back and forth to ask where the restroom was.

* * *

Aizawa looked like he was about to start spitting fire at him. He supposed it was understandable, the man probably thought that he was just going to use the girl. Which was hurtful to Toshinori. Especially since he was supposed to be his friend and know him far better than that.

"If you think for one damned second-" The man started to growl at him as he took a dangerous step forward into his personal space. "That I'm going to just stand here and let you coerce that girl into _anything_ that she doesn't want-" Toshinori put his hands up in the universal sign of surrender hoping that it might sooth the man's temper some. But if anything it looked like it was simply making matters worse.

"Calm down Shota and let me explain!"

"What's to explain? The girl literally only has_ two_ choices here. A coma that she may never be able to wake up from during the duration of her lifetime, because she'll have suffered irreparable damage. Or being bred like a goddamned animal." The dark haired man spat in outrage.

Toshinori flinched back from him a little bit, totally understanding where he was coming from here. But at the same time, he had a plan that might help Ichigo in the long term. So would it really kill him any to hear him out?

"Yeah, your right. It's a sucky, fucked up choice between those two extremes. _I get it_." Toshinori snarled at the dark haired man before then saying, "But there are reasons for them. And there's a reason why I offered myself to help her."

"And I suppose that the fact that you want to 'sacrifice' yourself to help her has nothing at all to do with the fact that you're sort of obsessed with her?"

Toshinori's jaw dropped open for a moment so that he could deny Aizawa's accusation, but it snapped shut again just as quickly when he realized that the man wasn't exactly wrong.

He was sort of obsessed with her. He had been since the day of the fight.

But not for any nefarious reasons. He had been completely honest when he said that he'd been _concerned_ for her and wanted to _protect_ her. And as far as he knew, his reasons hadn't changed at all.

For fuck's sake he'd worked a majority of his teen and adult life to be a Pillar of Justice! What good would all of his hard work and carefully cultivated skills as a hero do him if he crossed very dangerous and specific lines?

The fact that she was in heat and in need of someone to care for her during her cycle, much less the fact that she'd been modified and might truly be in some sort of peril- simply made him feel stronger and more passionate about _protecting_ her from further harm.

There was nothing wrong with that, right?

And there were other factors too. The possibility that she might get pregnant- she'd need someone who was stable, patient, kind and caring to help her raise a child. Not to mention that he had considerably more resources at his disposal than a lot of other heroes at present.

If he took care of her during this heat, and getting her pregnant would buy her a year or to without another one...then the doctors and such on his payroll could try and come up with some stuff that might help her actively avoid her heats. Suppressants could be made for just about anything nowadays.

Not to mention birth control and pain meds too.

It was all just a matter of time and finding the right formula that would work with her unique biology without causing her any more issues.

"For god's sake Shota, so I wanted to find her. So what? She was hurt when she disappeared!" Shota snorted at that but didn't say anything aloud about the weird shrine that the man had built in his office at the school. Sure it was small, and didn't exactly look like a shrine of any sort.

But Shota wasn't stupid. He knew that there had to be a much deeper reason for why Toshinori was so eager to throw himself at her while she was hormonally crazed.

He just...wanted to needle the man a little bit and see if he'd get irked enough to reveal his actual reasons to him.

"I'm not a damned monster! I'm _not_ going to hurt her!" Toshinori finally shouted at him, anger burning in his electric blue eyes. And he was starting to look dangerously like an angry bear about to go on a rampage.

Needless to say, Shota was somewhat convinced that maybe he'd gone too far this time. So he kept quiet as the man started to ramble. His anxiety spiking through the roof as the blond began to pace back and forth like a caged tiger while running his fingers through his hair angrily.

He told him his plan to help her. Which wasn't terrible as long as she could be convinced to go along with it. After all, buying herself some time would be necessary if Toshinori was going to have some meds made for her so that she wouldn't have to go through so much damned trouble in the future.

But she'd still have to get pregnant. There was almost literally no avoiding it.

Though he felt that Toshinori was being more than a tad bit too optimistic that the meds could be made in such a short time. The doctors working for him were good. But they weren't_ that_ good. The more realistic timeframe was four to five years.

Depending on how problematic her biology proved to be.

Which meant that she may have to get pregnant twice before the doctors making the meds managed to yield any sort of functioning results.

He might have been about to point this out to the man, but his words died on his tongue as soon as the door opened a liver and a dark head with black cat ears poked itself into the room. Toshinori noticed her presence immediately and stopped his pacing, his anger melting away to something more..._soft_ as soon as he laid his eyes on her.

Which was beyond weird to Shota because the way that he seemed to be so intuned to her was freaking insane. There was no fucking way that that sort of behavior was goddamned _normal. _

Not for Toshinori anyways.

"Ichigo what are you doing up?" Toshinori asked as he took a small step forward, towards the young woman.

She was a beautiful little thing from what he could see of her, Shota noted absently as Toshinori managed to finally reach the door and gently pull it open a little bit more so that he could see her a bit more.

The woman looked...like she was smelling something in the office.

Instead of answering Toshinori's question, she merely tipped her head back on her neck a little bit, exposing her throat and flattened her ears against her dark head and simply breathed deep for a moment before then suddenly demanding as she glowered at the blond, "Why do you smell like caramel, cinnamon, and cream?"

Toshinori just blinked at her, unable to understand why she would ask him that. And Shota suddenly burst out laughing at the absurdity of it. Mental images of villains sniffing the man and then trying to lick his face dancing through his mind as Toshinori finally asked Ichigo what she meant.

The woman merely shrugged and told him that he smelled nice. Weirdly sweet for a guy. But nice nevertheless. And then she demanded to know where the ladies room was.


	11. Chapter 11

The moment that Ichigo stepped out of the bathroom, Toshinori was right there to sweep her off of her feet._ Literally. _He'd followed her to the ladies room after she had asked where it was fully intent to make sure that the young woman's feet didn't touch the floor again unless it was absolutely necessary given her current condition.

And he was going to be damned stubborn about _why_ if she bothered to try arguing with him too. Fortunately, the moment that he swept her up into his arms, she didn't do more than let out a startled squeak at his actions. Followed swiftly by her sighing tiredly and laying her head on his shoulder as he carried her back down the hall to the office that he and Shota had been arguing in previously.

He figured that since she was up and seemed to be thinking at least clearly enough to _ask_ for a restroom- then maybe she was lucid enough to let him speak to her about her options? If nothing else, it was worth a try right?

Once he reached the office, he stepped inside to see that Shota had been a little bit busy while he'd been waiting for her to finish her business. The dark haired man had either hit a vending machine, and cracked it open to steal some goodies. Or he'd found the doctor's 'secret' mini fridge and raided it.

Either way, he was somewhat grateful to him since Ichigo was likely dehydrated and in desperate need of some food.

Once he set her down in one of the chairs, he straightened his spine just enough to shoot Shota a look. The dark haired man merely nodded his head in understanding and went to hang out across the office where the window was. Eliciting a chorus of whines from the three bozo's hiding on the other side of the desk.

He rolled his eyes in aggravation at the three baka's- whom were likely hoping to escape before anymore fighting could erupt- as he reached out and picked up a bottle of water and unscrewed the top before holding it out to Ichigo.

"Here, drink this."

Ichigo slowly reached out and took the water from him and brought it to her lips and tipped it back. She practically guzzled it down in one breath. Which...was pretty fucking neat considering that it was a big bottle. Still, Toshinori didn't really like the fact that she seemed to feel the need to drink it all in one go.

Such actions practically bespoke of just how much she seemed to need it.

_Just how dehydrated is she?_ He wondered as she set the bottle aside while he grabbed another and unscrewed the top on it too. She took it from his hand before he could hold it out to her and downed more than half of it in much the same manner as the first one before finally lowering it form her mouth and wiping her lips with the back of a hand.

"Thanks." She muttered as she set the bottle back on the desk as he shifted through the small mountain of foods and snacks until he found a few granola bars and a couple of sandwiches.

"Here, you need to try and eat something too." He said as he pushed the food towards her. She stared at it for a moment, not really feeling all that hungry due to her cramps. But the second that she saw a candy bar peeking out form the mound of snacks and stuff, she reached for it.

Not because she was particularly hungry or anything, but because she knew from past experience that chocolate usually helped with her menstrual cramps and stuff. And though she was fairly certain that she wasn't on her period at the moment she at least hoped that the chocolate would help her to some small degree.

And even if it didn't- what kind of girl would she be to turn down chocolate?

Toshinori watched her as she grabbed the candy bar and quickly tore the wrapping off before taking a bite. He didn't bother to feel any sort of disappointment at having the things he'd picked out for her as a meal, being shunned. Especially since she was probably going on instinct at the moment. And probably wasn't really all that aware of just how _ravenously_ hungry being in heat would make her.

She polished off the candy bar and stared at the small pile of food for a moment before hesitantly reaching for a sandwich. Her eyes flickered from him to Shota for several heartbeats, as if she were worried about them taking it from her or something, before finally dragging it into her lap and tearing the plastic open and taking a bite.

He didn't even think that she bothered to chew what was in her mouth, she simply didn't seem to have the patience at the moment. And after swallowing the bite, she looked up at him and asked in a curious tone. "You seem nervous. What's up? Are you being picked on? Do I need to beat up tall dark and frowny for you?"

Shota sputtered a little bit, caught between snapping at her for calling him 'frowny' and correcting her assumption that he was picking on the other man. Because he wasn't. Not anymore at least.

Whereas Toshinori merely mulled over her words for a moment before giving her a small, fond smile before replying. "I am nervous. I need to talk to you about you're heat options and...I'm not quite sure how to go about it without upsetting you."

She put the sandwich down and looked at him for a moment, her ears flattening back against her head for a moment before she finally said with a serous expression. "You don't have to talk to me about anything. I've pretty much figured the details of my 'heat' out for myself." Toshinori's eyes widened a little bit in shock and surprise as he stared at her. Shota must have felt something akin to his own emotions because the mention of knowing what was needed made the man stand up impossibly taller as he gave her a slightly calculating look before blurting out,

"W-Were you eavesdropping?"

"It's difficult to eavesdrop on a conversation that's being _screamed_." Ichigo snapped at him from over her shoulder, causing both men to flinch before she went on to say. "I'm not stupid, you know. I've had a little while to think everything over for myself once I found out about the whole heat thing. And I've managed to pin down enough of the specifics of what's really_ needed_ and what_ isn't_. "

"And while I'm not exactly one hundred percent _thrilled_ with the idea of sleeping with someone with the intention of actually getting pregnant. I'll get over it. I-It's just a little bit hard to push aside my own old fashioned ideals about the matter. That's all."

Toshinori blinked at her, utterly dumbfounded by how well she seemed to be taking things. Honestly, he'd never met anyone with an ability to compartmentalize things quite like that.

If he were in her place he'd be freaking the fuck out and attacking people. But then again... Watching as she placed what was left of her food back on the desk and then curled herself up in her seat, her tail tucked close to her body as she stared blankly ahead.

Ah, so she was upset after all. She was merely better at hiding it. He realized as he sighed and wondered how to go about telling her that he'd volunteered himself to help her.

"So what now?" She finally asked after a few moments of silence. "I mean, I know what I'm supposed to do and all. But I'm not very good with men." She had a sullen expression on her pretty face as she admitted this. Almost as if she were gauging how he would react to hearing such words.

"Hn? What do you mean?" He asked curiously as he tilted his head to the side a little bit. She couldn't possibly be hinting at being a virgin. Could she?


	12. Chapter 12

Toshinori didn't have to wait long for a response to his question. Which only seemed to confirm his thoughts on Ichigo's 'untouched' status. "Well...I've never dated anyone before," The thoroughly stupefied man couldn't help but let his jaw drop open in shock. "I've never even kissed anyone before." She said awkwardly as her face turned a fetching shade of pink before she semi hid it in the crook of one of her arms.

If he could get anymore floored then he'd likely become one with the _actual_ floor.

Holy fucking hell- how could she still be a virgin? He wondered in bewilderment. She was freaking _gorgeous! _Practically a goddess! She was more stunning than _any_ model or actress that he'd ever seen before in the entirety of his life! And no one had snatched her up? Not even once? _Really? _

Were the males she surrounded herself with stupid? Blind?

Were they dead from the waist down maybe? _Damned idiots_.

_Who_ in their right mind would pass up a chance to get with her? He wondered idly. He wasn't sure what else to think. He'd never been remotely close to the position that he found himself in at the moment. And she still didn't even know that he'd offered to help her through her heat just yet.

"I-I see." Was all that he could think to say when Shota got fed up with them both and walked over and clapped him on the shoulder hard enough to nearly knock him down as he said.

"Well then you're in luck. This dumbass has volunteered himself to be at your absolute disposal- if you're willing to give him the chance, that is." Toshinori's face turned a peculiar shade of red as he slowly turned his head to glare menacingly at the dark haired man who merely grinned, showing just a bit too much teeth and hissed at him. "I'm trying to help you both. Now, Don't. Fuck. This. Up."

_Well okay then_, Toshinori thought to himself as he turned his head back around and pasted on a awkward looking smile. He was going to get Shota back for this regardless of whether or not she accepted his offer.

Waiting with bated breath, he started to get the feeling that she was going to reject him and his offer. And how could she not? He was pitiful and weak and disgustingly ugly- His thoughts cut off rather abruptly when she stood up and suddenly latched onto him like a little koala bear and started to purr.

The sound vibrating in her chest as Toshinori finally seemed to shake himself out of his funk and slowly lifted his arms up to hug her to his chest. She accepted the contact without any protest, which he supposed was a step in the right direction.

Several moments later he felt Shota pat him on the shoulder in an encouraging manner as he said something about collecting the baka's hiding behind the desk and leaving so that they could have some privacy.

Toshinori nodded his head and gave the dark haired man a grateful look as Ichigo busied herself with burying her face in his shirt, rubbing her cheek against the fabric and inhaling his scent. Toshinori tries to suppress the small chuckle that he can feel bubbling up as he glances down at her doing so. But isn't able to.

The sound has her ears twitching as she tilts her head back to look at his face before she slowly and reluctantly released him from her grasp and awkwardly rubs at the nape of her neck with one hand while looking away from him in embarrassment.

She didn't know what had just come over her. She usually wasn't quite so keen on physical contact.

In fact, she usually barely _tolerated_ physical contact of any kind on a good day. And that was usually from her dad and closest friends! So the fact that she could so easily attach herself to someone that she didn't know all that well- especially someone that she was likely going to wind up fucking at some point- was more than a tad bit disturbing to her.

But dammit- she felt weird and moody... Her skin felt like it was itching and tingling in the weirdest places. Her nipples and pussy both _ached_. She could still feel that disgusting slimy stuff sliding down her legs again, and she still wasn't totally convinced that she hadn't pissed herself at least a little bit.

She felt gross and uncomfortable.

And her frigging cramps were starting to get _worse_! So dammit all if she wanted a frigging hug- then the man had better be totally prepared to deal with an utter hug monster! Because she felt insatiable.

And since he'd offered...well, she'd take what she could get.

"Are you alright?" He finally asked after several minutes of silence. He'd been busy studying her face to gauge her thoughts on the situation. Especially after she'd detached herself from him so suddenly.

She made some pretty nice faces. Her embarrassment was understandable given that she hadn't been born with animal parts and all. Her irked temperament was difficult to place. Was she upset with herself, the situation, or him for seemingly taking advantage?

Then there was her glower. He didn't know why she had suddenly glowered, but hopefully she wouldn't always wear such an expression. And then there had been the predatory look that had flitted across her face.

She had been thinking about something briefly that had started to wind her up. But just as quickly as it had crossed her mind, it had gone again. And she was just standing there looking..._disturbed_.

"I'm fine." She muttered quietly as her tail twitched.

He hummed and grabbed the chair on the other side of the desk and dragged it over so that he could sit in it while reaching over and patting the seat that she'd occupied previously. Getting the hint, she sat back down and carefully arranged her body so that any of the sticky liquid that kept coming from her couldn't easily be seen by him.

"I know that something like this can be somewhat overwhelming to you... But I thought that since we still don't know each other well and we might have a little bit of time before the effects of your heat _really_ hits you; then maybe we could talk and get to know each other a little bit better. Possibly lay some ground rules for how to proceed before we...uh- go lock ourselves away for a while."

"Sounds okay. What do you want to know?"

"Well, how about we start with your childhood. What were you like as a little girl?"

"I smiled a lot," She said, thinking of how things used to be before her mother had been killed. "I don't really think there were any real instances where I wasn't smiling and laughing about something." Toshinori smiled at hearing this. He could easily imagine her as a child, running around doing things little children do. Getting herself into mischief.

"It didn't last though," She said after a heartbeat or two, his smile faded somewhat as dread filled him at her words. _Please don't have let her have a terrible childhood. Please, please, please_\- he mentally chanted to himself, wanting desperately for her to tell him otherwise. "Everything sort of seemed to fall apart at the seams on the day that my mom was killed. I can still remember sitting in the mud next to her body, trying to wake her up for hours when a couple of neighbors finally found me."

His heart clenched in his chest at the mental image of her as a child, sitting next to her mother's body. She didn't elaborate about how she died. So his mind had to supply the means. And given the horrors that he'd seen before during his career as a pro-hero, his mind had much to draw on.

Each death was more bloody and disturbing than the last.

His stomach churned as she kept talking, "After that, dad was sort of lost... And things kind of _snowballed_. I wound up being a mom, dad and sister to my baby sisters. I took care of them, my dad... He just sort of checked out. He threw himself into his work as a doctor and didn't really have any time for us for a while. So I wound up doing _everything_. The cooking, cleaning, the errands, making sure that Karin and Yuzu both got to school. I walked them back and forth to make sure that nothing happened to them. Because if anything had- it really would have killed us."

"We had a few occasions where I had to take on odd jobs for grocery money because I couldn't get hold of dad. He'd been spending more and more time away by then and had been gone for months and months on end. The bills stopped being paid and after the electricity got turned off in the middle of winter and Yuzu got really, _really_ sick- I finally got fed up with him and his shit and took action."

"I grabbed her and Karin and took them both to the hospital that dad had been holed up at, and I made one hell of a scene, _screaming_ at him for being an absentee dad when he found out that Yuzu was in the ER. And finally came down to see what was up."

Toshinori hummed, trying to imagine how scared she must have been at the time and wondered how her dad had taken being called out on his shit. Given the level of grief she hinted at him going through considering how he'd practically abandoned them, he was betting that he hadn't taken being screamed at very well.

"He stopped ignoring some of his responsibilities after that, but he still beat the hell out of me for embarrassing him at work."

_I knew it._ He thought glumly as she decided that she was done talking about her childhood. "How about you? What were you like as a kid?"

"O-Oh, well...I was raised by my grandmother in America after my parents died. She was nice. She had this cozy two story cottage with a huge yard that was bordered by some woods with a creek. I would run around there all the time playing. I'd splash around in the creek when it was warm out, and then go and track mud on her nice clean floors because I kept forgetting that I was supposed to hose myself down before going inside."

"I bet she fussed at you a lot huh." She said with an amused smile. He gave her a small grin.

"Just until I was old enough to remember to clean myself off first. She died around the time I entered junior high. Of course by then, I was already an exchange student here in Japan. I pretty much took care of myself after that and worked hard towards my goal of being a hero."

"That's admirable. Hero work isn't for the faint of heart." She said as she rested her cheek in her hand. He grunted in agreement.

Hero work_ really_ wasn't for the faint of heart. Nor was it for anyone who was weak. Hero's had to have enough strength to shoulder the burdens of the masses. If you weren't capable of doing that, then you weren't cpapble of helping much of anyone.

"What kind of work do you do?" He asked all of a sudden, curious to know if she needed to inform anyone of whether or not she would need to take an extended leave of absence. After all, if she had a dangerous job- then she couldn't do it while she was pregnant.

"Hn? I'm...sort of a jack of all trades. I can do a little bit of everything. But from time to time I like to indulge in one specific job for an extended period of time." She said as it occurred to her that she couldn't tell him that she was a fighter. She wasn't sure how he would react to the information.

"Really? Like what?"

"Well, I can fix and build things. Nothing big or terrible. Appliances mostly. Occasionally computers. I like music too. And can play just about anything that I get my hands on. I even do mini concerts sometimes. Lately I've been making a steady paycheck by ghost writing for upcoming authors. I've already written and finished editing my own original work and submitting it for publication. I can work on cars. I know enough about teaching self defense that I've done that a little bit too."

He let out a small whistle. "You really are a jack of all trades..." And then suddenly asked, "Have you ever done secretarial work?"

"No. But I understand enough about how it's done. So maybe I could do it if someone were patient enough to spend a few days showing me the ropes."

"Good. I think I'll have a job opening in a week or so if you're interested." He said excitedly. She blinked at him but otherwise didn't really react to his words at all before then asking about what ground rules they should lay out for their...uh...coupling.

He scrunched his nose up a little bit at the odd use of words, wondering if she were trying to be polite. As he tried to think of what do's and don'ts to lay out for her. Turned out, he had very few things that he didn't exactly like in the bedroom. He'd try just about anything once. As long as it was within reason.

But mostly he just didn't want her to be caught unaware by his scar.

So after telling her those things, he sat back and waited for her to lay her own rules out. Her rules were fairly simple.

1) If he knocked her up she expected him to stick around and help raise their kid. _No excuses_.

If he left her once she was out of her heat, she made sure to tell him that he wouldn't like what might happen to him. Which sounded terribly ominous to him. And given her current state, he really didn't think that she was kidding. And he wasn't about to tempt fate any. Not after the way she'd nearly taken him out once already.

2) No anal sex.

He was fine with that too given the fact that he was pretty sure that he would end up hurting her pretty badly given how proportionate his...privates were to the rest of his body. Besides, anal was bloody and messy. Literally. And he wasn't really a fan of it.

3) Once her heat was over; baby or not- she expected to be able to get to know him a little bit better.

He smiled a bit when she mentioned him being a permanent fixture in her life. So apparently she already knew that he'd be around to make a nuisance of himself for as long as she would put up with him.


	13. Chapter 13

Not long after their talk, Toshinori could tell that her heat was starting to bother her some. She kept shifting herself around, and her face was flushed and she was starting to sweat a little bit.

So he collected her and then headed up to the studio apartment that he kept on the top floor of Might Tower. He usually kept it for instances when he was injured and needed a place to lie low and rest while he healed. Or even when he was overwhelmed by paper work and needed a place to crash.

It wasn't anyplace special, really. At least not to him. But he tended to keep it clean and the fridge fully stocked with foods and stuff, just in case. Which meant that it would suffice for the moment.

Once he stepped through the door, he carefully set Ichigo down while he locked the place up behind them and figured that since she was still a little bit uneasy about letting herself go. So he figured that he'd give her a little bit to explore the place before her heat became totally _unbearable_.

While she did that, he went about checking the fridge and a few other things to make sure that they had everything that they would need for however long that they were there.

And once he was sure that they had everything, he grabbed a couple of bottled waters and five boxes of protein bars and quickly went to the bedroom to stock them close to the bed. Just in case either of them were too weak later to even bother getting up and going very far to get anything.

Once that was done, he started to straighten his spine so that he could go and check on Ichigo. She was being oddly quiet, and to be perfectly honest, it was kind of starting to freak him out a bit. After all, for all he knew she had collapsed somewhere.

Walking out of the bedroom, he searched the bathroom, the kitchen and then finally found her in the living room. She wasn't doing anything. She was just flopped over onto his couch, lying there, staring blankly towards the TV.

"Ichigo?"

"I feel like my insides are boiling." She muttered just loud enough for him to hear.

He inwardly cringed in sympathy and moved to sit down beside where her head was on one of the cushions. Once he was situated comfortably he reached out and started to run his fingers through her dark hair. Paying careful attention to her cute little ears, and smiled a little bit when she leaned into his touch some.

A faint purr leaving her throat at his touch as she tilted her head to the side ever so slightly in a silent indication of where she wanted his hand.

Smiling a little as he continued to give her ears his undivided attention, he was startled a little bit when she finally pushed herself up onto her hands and knees and abruptly crawled into his lap. Letting his hand dropped from her head, he focused his eyes on her face as she settled herself so that she was straddling his hips.

"I-Ichigo?" He said her name questioningly as she leaned in and buried her face against his throat.

He twitched. He couldn't help himself, he could feel her warm breath on his skin. And it made him feel twitchy while simultaneously sending chills down his spine as she pressed her body completely flush against of his own.

Her tongue snaked out of her mouth and licked along his jugular before she gently nipped at the sensitive skin. Eliciting a low groan from him as his hands came up to grab her shoulders in a firm grip. His mind was torn between pushing her away and crushing her against his chest.

However he managed to hold himself perfectly still so that she could have free reign for the moment because he was curious about how far she was willing to take things here.

He knew that her heat had to be bothering her if she was resorting to this, but he was uncertain as to how _badly_ it was hurting her. Or if she was simply trying to seduce him to make things easier on them both.

He might have tried to ask her. If he hadn't been so startled by her grabbing his shirt and suddenly ripping it open, sending the buttons flying in several different directions as she toppled the two of them over onto the couch.

He on his back. And she sitting where she felt the most comfortable.

Her small hands skimmed over his stomach and chest. Her fingertips tracing the dips and hollows of his frail body while he watched her face with keen interest. He kept expecting her expression to show disgust or disappointment that he wasn't more attractive in his current form.

But her expression never changed. Not even once.

There was no flicker of disappointment. No disgust. No lips peeling back from her teeth in a hurtful sneer. There was nothing there but...genuine _want_ and _hunger? _For him? As he currently was?

It was mindboggling to believe.

_Don't get too excited, Toshinori. She's just reacting to her heat and you're the closest male available. She doesn't really want you._ _No one in their right mind would_. Some dark part of his mind hissed when he felt one of her small hands move up his chest and neck to lightly cup one of his cheeks. She brushed her thumb along his sharp cheekbone as she said in a trembling voice. "Stop thinking like that."

He blinked at her.

Not sure what she meant as she sighed and removed herself from him and stood up. Her tail was twitching in agitation, as she ran her fingers through her dark hair as if she were frustrated and then looked at him with some undecipherable emotion- vexation? Anger?- shining in her garnet colored eyes.

"Ichigo?"

"You need to stop thinking of yourself like that," She finally said. He slowly pushed himself up onto his elbows as he studied her for a moment. His heart thudded against his chest as if it were trying to escape his ribs as he swallowed past the lump in his throat as she said fiercely. "There's absolutely nothing fucking wrong with you. So _stop_ thinking that there is."

"I-I'm sorry." He said, uncertain about what else there was to say. He hadn't known that his thoughts were quite so transparent. It's not like he'd spoken such negative and belittling words aloud right?

"Don't be sorry, just...stop thinking of yourself as if you're unlovable or undesirable or unworthy in some way or another. Because I can tell you with absolute certainty after knowing you since yesterday- that all of that negativity and shit- is _wrong_. Dead wrong."

He opened his mouth to ask her how she could be so sure, but she literally hissed at him and then stormed off. Leaving him sitting there wondering just what the hell had happened.


	14. Chapter 14

Ichigo wasn't sure what irked her more at the moment. Her heat or the fact that her partner had such low self esteem. Making a tsking sound, she pressed her forehead against the cool glass of the bedroom window and suddenly wished that she were back home.

She needed a break from all the stupidity before she punched someone in the throat.

Her insides felt like they were on fire at this point. Everything was beginning to hurt her and while she knew what she needed to make it stop- she didn't feel right about using her partner to make herself feel better when he kept thinking such horrible and derogatory things about himself.

After all, it didn't take a genius to figure out what he seemed to think about himself.

He was the former number one hero, _All Might_. And though she didn't really keep up with heroes, the news and such, even she knew his name. It was difficult not too when his face was literally everywhere.

Everyone knew his story by now.

About how he'd been injured and that injury was part of the main reason _why_ he was in such bad health and had to retire as a hero. Which was understandable, to her.

But to him, his weakened body and health were something to be ashamed of and disgusted with. He felt as if he possessed none of the traits that someone like her would find desirable.

Even she knew that it took more than someone's physical appearance to make them lovable. For fuck's sake, she wasn't such a child, nor so shallow that she couldn't see his great _potential_. To her, he had all of the most favorable attributes that a man _could_ possess.

He was strong, even in his weakened form.

And though it wasn't a physical strength, he did possess a great inner strength. He was also kind, had a decent sense of humor, he was patient, thoughtful, protective, he had strong morals- and overall those were pretty good qualities for a future father to have regardless of who they were.

After all, it was more than physical strength and prowess that made a hero.

She just wished that he could look past his current weakness and see those things for himself. Turning her head so that her cheek was pressed against the glass this time, she sighed as her tail twitched and muttered tiredly, "Stupid boy." Which was followed by a weak yet no less dark sounding, _"Stupid Kisuke…"_

The next time she saw that bastard she was going to geld him with a rusty, poison laced spoon.

Groaning once the coolness underneath her cheek heated up past anything that she could tolerate at the moment, she pulled back away from the glass and in a deft movement, tugged her gown up over her head. And then moved back to press herself against the glass and wondered how long she'd have to be miserable like this before anything got any better.

She was barely able to keep her eyes open when something shiny caught her sight outside causing her to pull back from the glass a little bit in suspicion. Was it a sniper's rifle? She wondered.

She would imagine that since her partner was the former number one hero, that he'd have a lot more enemies than most. His arrest record _had_ to be pretty damned staggering.

Narrowing her garnet colored eyes a bit, she focused some of her Soul Reaper power into her senses and stretched them out so that she could get a good sense for _whoever_ or _whatever_ was daring to trespass so close to her partner's...temporary home.

_Whatever._ It didn't matter.

If she sensed any ill will from whoever then she'd fry them from here. Letting her power seep into every particle of the atmosphere around her, she felt it swirl and then spark in the air as she pushed it through the glass and into the world outside.

It turned out to be a sniper after all.

Some nobody wanna-be baddy looking to make a quick name for himself by taking out the former number one hero. Letting her lips quirk up a little bit into a sardonic smile, she almost felt pity for the guy.

_Almost. _Being the operative word here.

Letting her power spark a little bit more violently, she focused it so that it wound itself around him. There would be no warning for him. No chance to escape and try again later. Her power would strike simultaneously from all directions, a lot like a small rain storm or something. The only difference was that each and every particle of the air that he breathed would boil his blood and cook him from the inside out.

It wasn't the nicest or most painless way to go. In fact it was downright horrible. But at least it would be quick and he wouldn't suffer more than a heartbeat or two. It was over before he even realized there was anything wrong. And once she was sure that he was gone, she quickly focused her power on causing some damage to the immediate area around him.

Trying to make it look as if he'd been struck by lightening or something before then reigning everything back in.

God she was_ tired_.

She could feel her mind and consciousness drifting a bit. So she knew that she was falling even before her eyes finally closed and she lost her death grip on her body's functions. _Stupid, stupid Kisuke. _She thought almost sullenly as she slowly felt her consciousness slipping away.

* * *

Toshinori was at a loss as to what he should do.

He didn't know how Ichigo had figured out what he was thinking, much less what to think of her words to him. Even now, they echoed in his mind.

_"There's absolutely nothing fucking wrong with you. So stop thinking that there is."_

But there was something wrong with him. He wasn't as strong or powerful or even-

_"Stop thinking of yourself as if you're unlovable or undesirable or unworthy in some way or another. Because I can tell you with absolute certainty after knowing you since yesterday- that all of that negativity and shit- is wrong. Dead wrong." _

_Was it?_ He wondered. Was it wrong? Was he wrong? She obviously saw something in him that he didn't. Something that made him desirable and noteworthy to her. But for the life of him he couldn't figure out what.

He already figured out that she didn't seem to mind his appearance nor his present weakened state any. In fact, she had to be the first person- er _female_\- he meant female, that he'd ever met who had been so..._passionate_ with him in his current form.

Hell, usually he couldn't even pay a woman to get near him in this form. They tended to think him a ghoul, or a freak. And he couldn't exactly say that he blamed them any. He couldn't even smile at toddlers in his present form without them crying at the sight of his face.

Sighing, he settled his chin in his palm and thought hard for a moment or so but every time he tried to think of some reason for Ichigo to maybe go through her heat with someone else, but then just as quickly as the thought flitted through his mind- he recalled how she had felt pressed up against him. Her mouth and hands exploring his skin, setting his blood afire.

She'd been so soft. So damned tempting.

If he'd been a man of much less control...he was embarrassed to admit even to himself, that he would have ravished her like an animal without a second thought. Maybe it would have been easier if he had simply ravished her? God knew that she'd been willing.

Jesus he was fucking pathetic.

_"There's absolutely nothing fucking wrong with you. So stop thinking that there is."_

Sighing, he lifted a hand to run his fingers through his messy blond hair and promised to work on it. For her, if nothing else. After which he got to his feet and went to go find her.

She was being quiet again and he was starting to worry.


	15. Chapter 15

**This is a ridiculous filler chap. I'm sort of out of practice for writing lemon's, but I'm still going to try. So hopefully the next chap will be longer.**

* * *

Turned out that he had every right to worry.

Because upon entering the bedroom, he found her lying in a heap on the floor in nothing but her panties and quickly moved to feel for a pulse in her throat. Her heartbeat was a little bit erratic, but it was strong. So that was something.

Still...

"Why didn't you tell me that you were in such a bad way already?" He muttered, more to himself than her as he carefully collected her from the floor and moved her over to the bed.

Once that was done, he fished his cell out of his pocket and dialed the number for one of the doctors on the medical floor, feeling as if it would be best to have her checked out- but stopped himself from pressing the call button at the last moment since he already _knew_ how to fix this.

Grimacing a little bit as he realized that with her as out of it as she was- he'd have to _somehow_ impregnate her while she was unconscious. And absolutely _hating_ that it felt a little too much that it made him feel like he'd be...assaulting her since she wasn't awake and aware of anything at the moment, and thus couldn't consent.

He decided to spend several moments wracking his brain for an alternative method. Hopefully one that was considerably less creepy and nausea inducing and finally came up with the possible idea of 'artificial insemination'. But wasn't sure if it would work on her in her present state.

Re-dialing one of the doctors- he decided to call one of the specialists on his payroll and ask her if his idea would work. All while praying to god that it would, otherwise he would have failed to help Ichigo.

Luckily and perhaps unluckily, depending on whom one bothered to ask. The doctor was both a big help, and not quite so much. Sure, she had managed to answer his questions about artificially inseminating Ichigo in her present state.

But her instructions on how to do so were beyond _mortifying_.

Honestly, how the fuck was he supposed to ejaculate into a clean cup and _use_ a turkey baster on the woman? She was unconscious and he wasn't the least bit aroused!

Nervous and anxious as all hell. But not aroused.

He doubted very much that he'd even manage to get a hard on even if he tried. It just...felt _wrong_ to him. _Maybe I should call the doctor again and ask her to come up and do this instead? _At least the woman would know what the hell she was doing.

Luckily before he could begin to panic any further- Ichigo stirred slightly, causing him to almost literally jump and grab the girl by the shoulders and shake her as he rambled, "Ichigo! Sweetheart, wake up! I need to know what to do here. Because I really,_ really_ don't want to one day have to tell our kid that I had to use a turkey baster to get you pregnant! I don't think either of us would live down the shame! Not to mention that our kid would wind up in therapy for years. _Wake up please_!"

She cracked her eyes open a little bit and smacked weakly at his arms in an effort to get him to stop shaking her. It worked, of course. He wasn't so freaked out that he would ignore something like that for his own sake of mind and comfort.

Not when she was probably hurting really badly.

He may have stopped shaking her, but he didn't bother to remove his hands from her shoulders as he simply sat there for several anxious heartbeats waiting for her to say something when she finally just rasped. "Fuck me."

He wasn't totally sure if she was telling him to get on with it and do her, or if she were cursing. But as far as instructions went the words were pretty self exclamatory.

Sighing softly, he took her words to be the permission that he'd been needing from her. Muttering a quick and barely audible, "Thank god." More to himself than to her, he stood up and quickly stripped out of his clothing and then made a quick trip to the bathroom to grab some pills.

He was slightly embarrassed to admit it since he usually didn't have any issues with preforming, sexually. But in this case, he was still alarmingly flaccid.

So despite not liking the fact that he'd need to rely on pills to help him get an arousal, he'd use them only until she was a bit more aware of things and better able to participate in their lovemaking.


	16. Chapter 16

Ichigo's senses were muddled.

Her mind sluggish from exhaustion, yet she was aware enough to know what was happening to her at that exact moment. She could feel the gentle motion of her body moving ever so slightly. She knew of the large hand gripping her hip, of soft affectionate kisses being placed on her fevered, sweat dampened skin.

Of the deep masculine voice whispering in her ear, "I've got you." and "You're okay."

From time to time she could feel warm breath against her shoulder and throat and another hand settle over one of her breasts, fingertips stroking and rolling the pebbled flesh of her nipple as the person above her whispered salacious things to her that made her tremble with _want_.

Gradually, over an extended period her senses returned to her and her mind finally managed to focus itself. She could feel strength returning to her body and her exhaustion beginning to melt away into something else.

Something that she'd never felt before.

A strange coiling tension that had her wrapping her legs around slender hips, eliciting a startled sound from the other person before their face appeared in her line of vision. She blinked at him, her mind grasping at hazy memories of... Well, she wasn't entirely sure what her mind was grasping at aside from the vague sense of recollection that she felt.

He was _familiar_ to her.

Very much so.

"You're back," He said as he went totally still. His expression was both happy and concerned all at once. "How are you feeling? Do you need anything? Water? Food? A-A bathroom break?"

And as much as she wanted to respond to his questions, she sort of had one of her own as she said in a small, raspy voice. "I-I think I might have accidentally forgotten your name..." He blinked at her, his expression incredulous for a moment before she felt one of his hands against the side of her face. Gently cupping her cheek as he hummed, his expression turning bemused as he said.

"Toshinori. It's Toshinori Yagi."

"Oh."

"Have you forgotten anything else?" He asked as a small frown flitted across his face. She frowned and tried to remember anything else that she might have forgotten as he huffed and simply said, "You went into heat, passed out, wouldn't wake up- and when you finally did you said, 'fuck me'. Remember now?"

"Vaguely." She said honestly.

He hummed again and muttered, "Well at least the fever didn't _totally_ fry your brain," Before then asking, "Are you in any pain?"

"Ah...m-my head aches a little bit."

He nodded his head a bit and asked, "Anything else?"

"I-I don't think so."

"No cramping?" He asked as she felt one of his hands settle on her abdomen. She visibly twitched a little bit, her stomach doing a weird little flip-flop.

"N-No."

He smiled at her then, his lips quirking up into a breathtaking smile as he muttered, "I'm so glad." Before then going on to say, "It looks like your heat is starting to abate. You're skin feels cooler to the touch. And if you aren't in any pain, then there's no need for me to continue..." He blushed for a moment and made a funny squeaking sound that she couldn't make out. But sounded suspiciously like words to her ears, as he moved to sit back on his heels and grasped her ankles and took a few moments to gently pry her legs from his waist.

Once that was done, he moved back a bit more, slipping his member out of her moist heat.

Ichigo jerked a little bit at the sudden sense of emptiness that she felt in her lower body and automatically turned and curled herself up tightly on her side. He watched her for a moment, noting the slight trembling that overtook her body and slowly stretched himself out next to her and then wrapped his body around her. figuring that maybe she was a tad bit cold now that her fever was finally going away.

His arms going around her torso and gently pulling her back flush against his chest as he tucked her head underneath his chin and began to run his fingers through her tangled hair as he asked, "Are you sure that you're alright?"

"I think so."

He hummed and kissed her temple before saying in a slightly drowsy tone, "You need to wake me up if that changes any. I can't help you if you don't tell me when something is wrong."

He felt rather than heard her nod and let his eyes drift closed for a heartbeat before he felt her tail slide itself along one of his bare legs and quickly moved his hand to snatch it and stop it's ticklish movement.

She jumped a little bit at the feel of his hand grasping her tail, and pulled away from him a little bit. Earning a slightly frustrated sound of discontent from him as he let her tail go, and moved to return her to her prior position as he breathed/threatened, "Don't make me lay on you. I'm heavier than I look."

He didn't see her glower mutinously, but he certainly felt the weight of her stare as he dozed off.

* * *

When Toshinori woke up again, he wasn't sure how much time had passed. But Ichigo was still curled up next to him, her head lying on his chest and one of his hands was tangled in her dark silken tresses. She was purring, again.

The soft sound making his lips quirk a little bit as he slowly stretched his legs some, trying to be careful not to wake her up since she still seemed tired after everything. The first thing that he became aware of, aside from her purring, was the fact that she hadn't woken him up any.

She didn't seem to have moved any either.

Curiously, he tilted his head some so that he could look at the digital clock sitting on the bedside table and blinked upon seeing the date and time and then did a quick calculation in his head.

Ichigo's heat had started on the thirteenth, approximately around ten or so in the morning. And had ended on the sixteenth, just after two in the afternoon.

It was currently the eighteenth, right around three am.

_Have we been sleeping since then?_ He wondered curiously. If so, then that would certainly explain why none of the food nor water that he'd brought into the bedroom for her heat, had been touched any. Still...it was a tad bit concerning. Especially since Ichigo might very well be carrying their first baby right at that moment.

He needed to wake her up, feed her, get her to drink some water, and maybe even get her to take a bath too. And to be honest, he sort of needed those things as well.

Not only that, but the dirty bed sheets needed to be stripped, and some clean ones put back on the bed so that they could sleep some more afterwards.

Carefully untangling his hand from her hair, he pushed himself up into a sitting position, despite being somewhat pinned by her. The second that he managed to sit up, Ichigo's head slid down his torso causing her to quickly jerk herself upright, her purr ending in a startled sounding yelp as she stared at him in wide eyed confusion.

"Good morning!" He said in a cheery tone that elicited a threatening little growl from her that made him grin as he asked. "Did you sleep well?" His grin only grew as her ear and tail twitched.

Ah, so his sweet girl wasn't much of a morning person. _The poor thing._ He thought in amusement as he climbed off of the bed. He'd break her of that soon enough. Especially with a baby on the way.

"I slept fine." She finally said once he finished stretching and popping his back. "You?"

"Like the dead," He replied before then asking. "Now, would you like some food first? Something to drink? To use the facilities? Or take a bath?"

She blinked at him as his question slowly registered with her and she took several moments to mull things over before finally saying, "Bath/facilities. Food and water after."

"Good choice. I'll go and run you a bath then. You'll likely need to soak for a little bit after...ya know."

"Why?"

"Hn? Why what?"

"Why will I need to soak?"

"Because you're probably sore-"

"I'm not."

"Huh?" He said questioningly.

"I'm not sore. I feel just fine so I don't need to soak and waste any of your warm water. I can just take a shower and be out in a few minutes." He opened his mouth to argue with her, but she practically scrambled out of the bed and ran for the bathroom.

Leaving him standing there scowling as he thought, _She's the weirdest woman that I've ever met. _However he knew that he wasn't going to win this particular argument no matter how much he wished he would. No matter.

He'd find another way to spoil her. In the meantime, he alternated between stripping and remaking the bed and figuring out what to do about their food situation. He didn't think that he had quite enough energy to try his hand at cooking at the moment, so instead he decided to call out for some delivery.

The only real problem that he had now was trying to figure out stuff like what Ichigo might like, and whether or not she had food any dangerous allergies.

Sitting down on the edge of his bed, he pulled out at least a dozen or so take out menu's for some twenty-four seven eateries, and was idly flipping through some of them in an effort to see what he wanted when Ichigo finally returned wrapped in a big, fluffy towel.

Upon seeing her sit down across from him, he reached out and grabbed a bottle of water and held it out to her. "You need to drink something."

She took the water from him, and popped the top off and took a drink noting that he was watching her like a hawk. "Do you have any food allergies that I need to know about?"

"No."

He sighed in relief, "Good. Look through some of these then and see what catches your interest." He said as he handed her a few menu's. It didn't take him too long to find what he thought he'd like. But he wouldn't bother to place any orders until Ichigo found something for herself.

It took her a little bit, and during that time, he decided to go and take a shower himself after he dug out a shirt and some shorts for her to wear. Upon his return, he found that she had laid a couple of different menu's out side by side and was scowling at the paper pages while her tail twitched in irritation.

"Find something that you might like?" He asked as he sat back down on the edge of the bed.

"I found a few things. But I can't seem to make up my mind any on which one I want more."

"Well, you haven't eaten anything in days... So why not get a little bit of all of them?"

"Because it...just sort of feels wrong."

"Wrong?" He asked curiously. She nodded her head and continued to scowl at the menu's as if she were trying to will them to burst into flames.

"I don't exactly have my wallet on me." He huffed softly as he realized what the problem was. "And I feel weird asking you to buy me a lot of food. Especially since some if the dishes look expensive."

A woman's independence could be like a double edged sword sometimes. Sure it could be an amazingly good thing to not rely on another person for everything in life. But at the same time, for someone as protective and possessive as Toshinori could be sometimes- it could be a _lot_ like being shot in the foot.

All it took was one wrong move/word and _bang_, there goes your toes.

Reaching out, he picked up all of the menu's that she'd been looking at and flipped them closed and then smacked her on the nose with them. She yelped and jerked back away from him, looking at him in disbelief as he set them back down beside his thigh. "Ichigo... I don't think you fully realize the _depth_ of what has happened between us here."

"Huh?" Ichigo said, as she tilted her head in an inquisitive manner.

"I'm going to be a long term fixture in you're life from now on. Especially since you're heat has ended so soon-" He was hedging for the moment, trying to sort out what he wanted to say to her. While trying to allow what he was hinting at to click in her mind.

And he knew the exact moment that it did, because her expression was a cute mix of fascination and wonder as she lifted a hand and put it against her stomach. "I-I'm preg-" He nodded his head as she tried to articulate the words on the tip of her tongue before finally just blurting out, "_Oh wow._"


	17. Chapter 17

Ichigo didn't know what to say aside from what she'd already said a few moment's prior, so she just sat quietly as Toshinori ordered them both some food. The realization of her possible pregnancy had spurred her to _stop_ arguing with him about the food issue and let him do what he wanted.

Partially because she felt usually famished, and partially because she worried what not eating for several days would do to the baby. Once he finished ordering the food, he settled himself so that he was leaning back against the headboard of the bed, facing her again as he asked, "What are you thinking?"

She twitched a little bit, the fingers over her stomach digging into her flesh hard enough to leave small bruises in their wake as she thought for a moment before slowly saying, "I think...I'm sort of shocked that it's happened so quickly. And also because I never thought that I'd live long enough to even have kids in the first place."

The shock that she felt was understandable.

Honestly he hadn't expected it to take just a few days to impregnate her either. He had expected to pretty much collapse and be on the verge of death before _something_ caught. However he frowned at her other words as he tried to figure out what she meant by 'live long enough'.

"What do you mean by, live long enough? Are you sick?_ Are you dying_?" He finally managed to say, alarm suddenly coloring his tone as he stared at her. His mind turning over her enhancements and the information that he'd been given on other things as he realized that it was entirely possible that she was dying. And then he started to get angry.

Seething anger began to well up within him as he mentally vowed again to hunt down the people/person responsible for doing this to her and-

"What? No!" Ichigo finally said, her expression confused as she asked. "Why would you think I'm dying?"

"You're words. You never thought that you would live long enough. What did you mean?" He asked again.

"O-Oh. Well...I-I uh..." His frown intensified as she stammered a little bit more before finally managing to say, "B-Because of all of the fighting. I never thought that I'd live long enough to have kids because of all of the fighting."

"Fighting?" He echoed curiously before demanding, "What fighting? Were you in a yakuza gang or something?"

Ichigo scrunched up her nose in disgust at the mere thought of being in a yakuza gang as she deadpanned, "_Ew_, no."

"Then what fighting do you speak of?" As Japan's former number one hero, surly he'd _know_ it if some random place fell into chaos and violence. After all, he would have been asked to _go_ there and restore law and order if it had. Wouldn't he? He wondered as he focused on her again, his expression contemplative.

Ichigo shifted around anxiously and looked uncomfortable under his scrutiny. But he refused to back down about this. Especially when it could be something that one day spilled over into their lives or even took her away from him and their child.

"Please tell me," He pleaded quietly. Her ears flattened themselves against her dark head and her tail lay limply on the bed behind her, as she looked as if she wanted to do anything _but_ talk about the subject. He sighed and ran his fingers through his wild blond hair and simply said, "You can't avoid this, Ichigo. I won't let you. So _please_...just tell me."

Her tail flicked ever so slightly as she sighed and reluctantly said, "Fine. I can tell you bits and pieces, but I can't tell you everything."

"And why is that?" He asked.

"For safety reasons... I don't want you to know specific things about my life. It'll be safer for you and our kid that way."

He pretty much caught the gist of what she meant just from those words alone, and waited patiently for her to speak. "Well, to begin with... The town that I come from is sort of like a really finicky gated community. The population there is pretty big for a town. I think that the last time I checked the population number, it was around fifty eight thousand and three hundred and ninety. Of course that was before the population increase."

He cocked his head but remained silent hoping that she would get to the point soon.

"Anyways, my hometown is pretty much a hotbed for all kinds of violence and terrorism and _other_ stuff..." Ah, finally they were getting somewhere. "And out of everyone in Karakura town, no one knows what a quirk is. Because no one has one-"

_"What?!"_ He nearly shouted in disbelief, because she had to be wrong. There was no way that a town with a population of that size could possibly not have quirk users! She flinched from the volume of his voice and put her hands over her ears in an effort to protect them.

"Do you want to hear this or not?" She hissed at him as she absently rubbed at her ears the moment that he fell silent again. His expression both chagrined and a little bit sheepish.

She huffed as he put a hand over his mouth and motioned with his free hand for her to continue. "Anyways, no one there has a quirk. In fact no one there even _knows_ that quirks exist. Partially because there are very few people that have ever moved there. And partially because there's a device that's been strategically placed around the outer border of the town that wipes the memories of anyone without some form or another of a latent ability."

"It's meant to serve as a defense mechanism against outsiders. But because of the memory wipe, we're kept ignorant of a lot of the potential dangers around us. And out of everyone in the population, only a small handful of people had _ever_ been discovered with abilities. Not quirks, but abilities passed down through blood... Out of everyone, out of the total population of Karakura Town, there was maybe two dozen people with any kind of super human abilities whatsoever. A majority of which, are kids."

He frowned at the implications of a non-quirk based population and a small number of people with actual abilities living side by side. Anyone with anything _destructive_ would be looked upon as something sinister or evil by the ignorant masses. Especially if anyone ever got hurt or accidentally killed.

Those with abilities would even be hunted, killed or even locked away.

_It would be like a modern day witch hunt._ He thought grimly as she continued speaking. "So, anyways... my parents were both really powerful people. Mom was a psychic/medium. And sometimes worked with the police to solve serial killer cases and cold cases and such. As you can imagine, she put a lot of people behind bars and made a lot of enemies."

Toshinori blinked at her, his expression slightly bewildered.

"And dad...well I don't really know one hundred percent what he did. But it had _something_ to do with the government and the military. He became a doctor around the time he married my mom. And everything was fine for a while, but then mom was killed by her crazy grandma and a few other neo-Nazi-dictator-wannabe's..."

Toshinori couldn't help himself at this point, he paled and reached out and plucked her up off of the bed and deposited her into his lap so that he could hold her. He kept getting the weirdest feeling that he really shouldn't hear anything more. Especially now that she'd told him that part of her family were crazy neo-nazi's and _responsible_ for her mother's death.

"Anyways, I really came into my own abilities around the age of fourteen. And I wound up being dragged into fights that I shouldn't have been a part of in the first place. I made some neat new friends, rediscovered my godfather and some family that I didn't know about at the time. But I also wound up thwarting some seriously hard hitters, rogue military guys, mercenaries, assassins, and genocidal lunatics."

"Are any of them still running loose?" Toshinori asked. She didn't answer him for a little while. But when she did, her answer was _less_ than desirable to him. However he could deal with that later.


	18. Chapter 18

After their food arrived and they'd both eaten something, Toshinori had just finished putting the leftovers away and returned to the bedroom to try and get some more rest. And found Ichigo already curled up on the bed looking thoughtful.

"What's on your mind?" He asked as he climbed onto the bed and stretched out next to her on his side.

"A little bit of everything, I guess." She muttered as she turned onto her side so that she was facing him. He rose up on an elbow and studied her face as he waited for her to elaborate a bit. But when she seemed to get lost in her own thoughts again he felt he had to ask to get her attention again.

"Like what?"

"Oh... I-I'm kind of worried about work and some other stuff. Like, what's safe to do now and what I really _need_ to avoid- work wise. Cause I sometimes get jobs where I work with poisons and stuff."

"Avoid those, please."

"I know, I will." She promised him before going on to say, "I also have some music gigs coming up soon that I need to do some prep work for, before the big day. And I think at least one of them is for a gala of some sort. So I can't exactly ditch even if something happens and I wind up bleeding and broken." He made a weird growling sound and tightened his hold on her somewhat.

"Also I need to set aside some money for the beginnings of a college fund for our baby. But I can't make up my mind between five thousand dollars to start with. Or maybe something closer to ten?"

He hummed as he reached out and absently ran his fingertips along one of her eye brows as a soft sigh escaped him before he said. "Sounds like your thinking of everything at once."

"I like to plan. And every plan needs to have at least _ten_ or more contingencies."

"I can set up the college fund up for the baby, if you want." He offered before asking, "And I don't know much about music, but I have a co-worker/friend who does. He's really, really good at it too. Maybe I could ask him to meet up with you and help you iron out some details for the performances?"

She gave him a small, tentative smile at the offer and buried her face against his bare chest. "If he's okay with it, then I'd be happy for the help. It would give me less to worry about for the time being anyways." He hummed again as he slipped his arms around her slender body and pulled her as close to him as the both of their bodies would allow.

"I'll ask him sometime tomorrow then since I need to check in with my boss anyways. He's probably wondering if I'm still alive or if you've sucked me dry already."

She didn't know what to say to that aside from. "Okay..."

"Anything else?"

"I need clothing to wear too. Nothing much, you could probably pick something up from my apartment. But some clean clothing, panties, bra, socks, pants, shoes and a shirt. Unless you want me to take off with one of yours."

He sniggered quietly at the idea of her wearing one of his shirts outside for any reason- she practically swam in the one that she was wearing now- and run his fingers through her hair. As he slowly said, "I don't mind if you take one. But if you really need one of your own, then I'll get one for you."

"I also need to figure out what to do with the apartment..."

"Not tonight, you don't-" He said with a wide yawn. The moment that he managed to get it out of the way and close his mouth again he muttered, "We're both tired. Let's sleep a bit more and then when we're both rested we'll talk about what to do with it."

"But-" She started to protest when she heard him say her name in a warning tone. His voice taking on a rumbling quality as she felt him take hold of one of her ears between his fingers and lightly tug on it in silent reprimand. She huffed at him, but didn't say anything else once he let go of her ear and finally went completely still.

He managed to drift back to sleep while she was stuck awake, and fretting over the future.

* * *

Toshinori slept like a rock until nearly nine thirty that morning before finally waking up. And when he did, he was alone. The bed next to him was cold to the touch, indicating that Ichigo hadn't been in bed with him for quite some time.

Quickly rolling out of bed, he went to look for her. Hoping that she hadn't left the apartment sometime during the night, and found her in the kitchen fixing some food to go with the leftovers from the night before.

"Ichigo? What are you doing up?" He asked as he walked up behind her and looked her over. Trying to figure out if something was wrong or not.

"I couldn't go back to sleep." She muttered as she looked at him over her shoulder. He frowned at her a little bit and then before she realized what he was doing, he swept her off of her feet, causing her to yelp as he removed her form the kitchen and set her in a seat at the island that separated both the kitchen and the living room.

"Stay there." He said quietly as he then backed away so that he could finish cooking whatever she had on the stove and paused for a moment upon seeing several plates piled high with stuff and decided to make them both something to drink before he looked too closely at anything.

Luckily for them, he had had the kitchen stocked up on a little bit of everything. Which meant that they had more than a wide variety of stuff to choose from.

"Would you like juice? Or tea?" He asked after several moment or so as he checked out the food still cooking.

"Juice is fine." Came her tired reply. He nodded his head and took a moment to turn the heat down on the stove since the food looked done anyways and then set about fixing her drink. His eyes kept straying occasionally to the foods that he'd noticed both on the stove and on his counter.

He was just a tad bit surprised to find that Ichigo had been making them both an little bit of an American style breakfast to eat with their left overs. Eggs over easy, bacon, some medium rare steak with some cooked veggies. Peppers and diced tomatoes with some chives, a touch of garlic and onion mixed in. And a side of pancakes covered in powdered sugar and blueberries.

It had been ages since he'd had anything like it. So naturally he was excited to have the chance to eat it since he hadn't been aware that Ichigo even _knew_ any American dishes.

And then turned his attention to the plates sitting on his counter and blinked at the contents.

Ichigo had been busy since he'd fallen asleep. Very, _very_ busy from the looks of things. He'd never seen so much food inhabiting his kitchen before.

And that was really saying something since he often celebrated American holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and even New Years. And tended to entertain more than thirty or so people per holiday.

Along with the cooking American dishes she had also made some more traditional Japanese dishes as well. Dishes like red miso soup and some handmade butter rolls, cookies, and even several different flavored kanten desserts! Orange flavored ones, strawberry flavored ones, lemon flavored ones, green tea flavored ones, and peach flavored ones too from the looks of things.

There were so much of them that he wasn't sure what to do with them all. He knew that he'd not be able to eat any beyond a small portion here or there. He had no clue if Ichigo actually _liked_ sweets to such a degree.

And even if she did, there was _no way_ at all that she'd be able to eat all of this herself anyways.

At least not without making herself really sick for a few days. Maybe he could take some to work with him and share with his co-workers. Aizawa alone would love to get some.

The man had a sweet tooth like no one that Toshinori had ever seen before.

"Ichigo? Sweetheart, w-what are we supposed to do with-" He motioned to the sweets on his counter with a hand and watched as she sort of perked up a little bit in her seat.

"I was thinking of trying to go out in a little bit and maybe taking some of the sweets to...some kids in my neighborhood," He blinked at her, his heart thudding in his chest as he wondered if she was speaking of the children that had been homeless. "They don't have a whole lot in the way of food and goodies and stuff. So whenever I start stress baking/cooking, I try to make as much extra as I can to share with them."

_Ah, so she was talking about the children after all._ He thought idly as he went ahead and opened his fridge and paused in disbelief when he some _more_ sweets in a few plates stuffed inside.

"Uh-huh." Was all that he could think to say as he grabbed some orange juice and some grape juice out of the fridge before he closed it and went back to his task.

Once he finished, he put the juice cartons away, once again taking a moment to eye the sweets in his fridge almost suspiciously as if they were going to come to life and try and eat him or something. Shaking his head, he closed the fridge and grabbing Ichigo's glass and taking it to her.

She gave him a grateful smile as he set it down in front of her before going on to say, "I haven't checked on them in days. And I'm worried that something might have happened to them."

Toshinori did his best _not_ to flinch, considering he hadn't checked his phone in the past few days for updates on said children, and suddenly felt bad about that fact. And also because Ichigo was worrying herself needlessly.

Holding up a finger, he went and turned the stove off since they'd be eating soon anyways and then went to the bedroom and grabbed his cell phone and then returned to the kitchen and quickly pulled up everything on the kids and handed the phone to her so that she could see it as he brushed by her to go ahead and fix their plates.

While he busied himself doing that Ichigo was scrolling through the pictures and updates that he'd been sent from day one of removing the kids from the streets, and couldn't stop the overwhelming sense of relief that she felt at knowing that the children were safe and sound and being treated with care.

They were happier than she'd seen a lot of them in a long time.

She could tell because almost every picture Toshinori had on his cell was of them laughing and playing and hanging out with some of the pro-heroes that she'd heard of here and there. They weren't cold. They weren't starving.

_I didn't lose anymore of them to illness or exposure. I don't have to bury anymore babies in secret._ She couldn't stop the prickling of tears welling up.

Toshinori lingered across the room longer than was necessary, and occasionally cast her a cautious look because he didn't know if she would feel angry at him for maybe overstepping or crossing some invisible line in some way or-

"Thank you." Her voice was so quiet that he barely even heard her at first. But she repeated the same words louder the second time that she said them.

"Huh?" He said unintelligibly as he turned to look at her for a moment.

He wasn't sure what made him freak out the most, the fact that she was crying or the fact that she wouldn't look at him. Walking over to her, he knelt down to see if she was oaky and was nearly knocked over when she suddenly fling herself out of her seat and hit him square in the chest and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Omph!"

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She said as she cried against his shoulder. He just sat there stupidly for a moment before finally seeming to snap out of his funk enough to bring his arms up and wrap them around her and just held her until she finally managed to calm down enough to let him go and move back a little bit.

"Are you alright now?"

"Yeah," She hiccupped as she wiped her face with her hands. "Yeah, I'm okay now." She said before asking, "W-Would it be okay if we went to see them?"

He nodded his head.

"Of course, well go see them after we eat and I get you some decent clothes. I mean, you did make them those sweets. It would be terrible if they went to waste after so much effort and care was put into them. Right?"


	19. Chapter 19

If Toshinori had any fears, concerns, or worries whatsoever before about whether or not Ichigo would be a good mother to their baby.

Then those thoughts/feelings vanished the moment that she stepped through the door of the center where the children were being kept- and she automatically wound up at the bottom of a dogpile of tiny bodies.

He watched her and the children in rapt attention as they interacted with one another.

Ichigo reaching out and touching, ruffling the hair of, pinching little cheeks, and checking out little gaudily painted fingernails and grinning.

She knew their names. Their likes and dislikes. And who amongst them liked specifically flavored sweets like the ones that she'd made. The woman was born to be a mother. She was simply a _natural_ at it, in Toshinori's opinion.

After about ten minutes or so, the dogpile slowly ebbed a bit, leaving maybe one or two little ones left. One attached to Ichigo's arm like a little leech, and refusing to let go anytime soon. And another sitting in her lap while the rest of them sat on the floor around her.

All of them were chattering away at her all at once, and though Toshinori couldn't make heads or tails of what any of the children were saying to her. Ichigo obviously understood everything being said, because he caught little snippets of conversation from her here and there.

"Yes, I missed you." and "Oh, you lost a tooth!" followed by "You're new bunny is adorable." and "Yes, I brought goodies for everyone." a happily chirped, "Happy Birthday Emi! You're getting so big!" to "No, your fingernail polish isn't bad looking."

Okay, he managed to catch that one. And it had to a be a total _lie_, because there was no way that neon orange nail polish and eyesore gold glitter could look pretty.

He had to blink his eyes several times just to get rid of the spots caused by the glitter picking up the light in the room. But Ichigo didn't seem bothered by it in the least. Which worried him a little bit since he couldn't recall the last time that she even blunk before he slowly realized.

The poor thing must been temporarily blinded like he'd been! Maybe he should step in now?

"Stop picking on your baby sister Shiki." She growled out, her tail twitching in irritation as one boy smacked a little girl on the leg causing her to start crying. Followed by Ichigo barking out in a sharp tone that made even Toshinori _jump_ a little bit. "_Manson_, stop chewing on your hair- it isn't food!" As she reached out and used a finger to tug some of one child's spit covered hair away from his mouth so that he couldn't chew on it anymore.

_Yup, definitely mother material._ He thought with a fond quirk of his lips before quietly ambling over to join them all.

He managed to somehow fold himself into a small space and had several children look at him strangely, while several other younger ones giggled at the funny spectacle that he presented all huddled in on himself like he was as he gave them an awkward looking smile.

Even Ichigo couldn't help but smother a laugh at him behind one of her hands as one of the older kids asked, "Who're you?"

Toshinori blinked at the boy and smiled as he introduced himself. "I'm Toshinori. Who're you?"

"I'm Shiki. What are you doing here?"

"Well, you all looked like you were having so much fun, that I wanted to join you. Is that okay?"

"No." The boy said with a scowl.

Toshinori couldn't help his jaw practically hitting the floor even if he tried. He'd never had anyone, child or otherwise, tell him that he couldn't join in and participate in anything fun before. So naturally, he wasn't sure how to react. All he could seem to do was gape at the child and wonder why he was being so mean to him.

"Shiki!" Ichigo barked sharply, causing the boy to flinch. "Apologize to Toshinori and _stop_ being such a bully to everyone."

The boy crossed his arms over his little chest and glared at her. "No. I don't want too."

"You'll apologize to him now or you aren't getting any goodies- I'll give them to him to make up for your rudeness- and you'll be spending time in the corner in a time out." Ichigo growled at the boy. The fur on her tail bristling and standing on end in anger.

The boy didn't seem impressed by her threat. Either that or he simply didn't think that she'd carry it out.

However that quickly changed when she held something out to Toshinori and waited for him to take it from her. Frowning a little bit as he took the small bag of wrapped goodies that he'd helped her fix up just before they had left Might Tower, and just held it.

He watched the little boy's stubborn expression melt away to one of horror just before he screamed in rage and launched himself at him. Toshinori realized in shock that the boy was actually going to attack him and quickly steeled himself to take a few hits. However Ichigo quickly caught the little spitfire around the waist with an arm, and picked him up before he could manage to even get close enough to him to do anything remotely _violent _to him.

He stared at her in awe as she hauled the angry, kicking and screaming boy up over one of her shoulders and then walked across the room where she set him down facing the corner. And hissed at him when he tried to leave it.

Finally once the boy figured out that he wasn't going to be leaving the corner until he learned his lesson, he rested his head against it and cried as Ichigo made her way back over to him and the rest of the children. "Are you okay?" She asked quietly as she sat back down on the floor.

Toshinori perked up a tad at seeing her back and stammered out, "H-He was a-actually going to attack m-me."

"Yeah. Sorry about that," Ichigo said in a apologetic tone as she reached out and put one of her hands against his cheek. "Shiki's one of the few kids here who actually has a temper and no fear or remorse whatsoever about using it."

"Still..." Toshinori said as he cast a glance towards the crying boy from over his shoulder before then saying sadly, "I feel badly that he won't get his goodies."

"Don't feel to badly for him. I don't reward bully-ish or violent behavior. Besides, he's nine and old enough to know better than to act like that." Ichigo said as one of the little kids from before crawled into her lap and leaned against her with a contented sigh while another couple of children chased her tail around as she moved it around in front of them.

Either playing along with them or trying to keep the sensitive limb out of their tiny hands.

"I suppose that you're right." He said reluctantly, knowing that she _did_ have a point. The boy was old enough to know how to properly behave around others. He also knew the difference between right and wrong. There was no real excuse for him to throw a temper tantrum at his age.

"But I still feel badly for him missing out though."

Ichigo curled her tail around her waist to prevent the kids chasing it from actually catching it, earning a whine of disappointment from them. Causing them to shuffle off before she finally said, "Don't fret so much about it Toshinori. Everything will be fine. Just sit back and watch, okay."

He nodded his head, trusting her to know what she was doing since she obviously knew more about children than he did as she called everyone but Shiki over to get their sweets.

Once everyone had theirs and were happily munching on them, Ichigo called Shiki over. The boy didn't look too happy, in fact his glower as he shot him a dark look was making him downright nervous.

"Do you have something to say to Toshinori for earlier?"

The boy grumbled something and Ichigo reached out and grabbed the boy by the ear, causing him to yelp as she hissed at him, "Say it again louder. He didn't hear you."

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" The boy said as she released his ear. Toshinori looked between the two of them uncertain about how he should react.

"What are you sorry for?" Ichigo prompted in an impatient tone as she glared at the boy.

"For being a bully, and being mean to Mr. Toshi who didn't do anything wrong." Shiki said in a sullen tone as he rubbed his sore ear.

Ichigo's expression visibly brightened and she put a hand on the boy's shoulder and nudged him towards Toshinori and asked, "Now what do you do?"

Shiki rolled his eyes and grumbled something about 'scary girls' underneath his breath but did as he was prompted to do by Ichigo, and gave Toshinori an embarrassing hug. Toshinori looked as startled as the time a villain had pulled a gun on him as the boy wrapped his small arms around his neck.

And for a moment, he thought that he was going to die. He literally thought that the boy was going to attempt to _choke_ him or something. Looking towards Ichigo in alarm, he noticed that she was signing to him to hug the boy back and nearly sagged in relief.

_Oh thank god. _He thought to himself as he slowly wrapped his arms around the boy and awkwardly patted him on the back. "All's forgiven Shiki." He said to the boy before he heard his little voice growl out,

"I hope that you know what your doing. You're girlfriend is frigging terrifying." And then abruptly released him and grabbed the little bag of sweets from Ichigo's hand and then quickly scampered off as Ichigo leaned over into his personal space a little bit and smiled as she said sweetly.

"See? I told you that everything would be fine."

He nodded his head his expression a little bit stunned as he slowly said, "So you did."


	20. Chapter 20

**My bad. I'd forggoten that Ichigo had mentioned her sisters in an earlier chap. Sorry.**

* * *

"You're shockingly good with children," Toshinori said as he looked down at her while they walked down the street together. "Did you used to babysit some as a kid?"

"Actually, I helped to raise my baby sisters and my man-child of a father after my mom died."

"Really?" He asked, his eyes widening slightly in surprise before he said, "Oh! I'd forgotten that you mentioned you had sisters." He hadn't expected her to have helped to raise her siblings. Hell, he was startled to even recall that she _had_ siblings, period. She'd hadn't talked about them thus far beyond mentioning them earlier on. So he couldn't help but be curious now that he remembered about them.

"What are they like? How old are they? Do you think that they'd like me? Wait...you said man-child father. What does that mean?" He asked in a bewildered tone.

"My sisters are twins, and four years younger than myself. Yuzu is a little lady, and like's lady-like activities. Cooking, sewing, chores and such. And Karin is a little tom boy who likes running around like a little hoodlum and being one of the boys. My dad has the mental and emotional maturity of a ten year old, and seemed to regress significantly after mom's death."

Toshinori couldn't help but _cringe_ a little bit at how she described her father. The man sounded like he wasn't much of a father, and he couldn't help but wonder just _how_ Ichigo grew up in the man's care. "Didn't you say that he did something with the government and military?" He asked in a puzzled tone.

"Yeah."

"And he was a man child?" His tone was slightly suspicious now.

"Yup, pretty much."

He got quiet for a moment before suddenly blurting out, "I don't know if I'm totally appalled or incredibly impressed. I mean, when you said that he did something with the government and military I imagined something..._challenging_. Like politics or even being a soldier-"

"He was a soldier. Or at least he certainly had _training_ as one. He doesn't like politics overly much. Too many people with far too many questionable agenda's."

"Really? He had training as a soldier?" Toshinori asked incredulously.

"Yeah. Something like Delta Force training," Ichigo said with an amused smile. "He could go from a man child one second to flat out scary in under zero point two seconds under the right circumstances. Kisuke and he were old military buddies."

"You know, you've mentioned him several times before- but I _still_ don't know who this Kisuke person is."

"He's the one that is totally to blame for the cat parts and the fact that I go into heat." Ichigo deadpanned and started to brush by him when she felt his hand wrap around one of her upper arms, pulling her to a stop. Turning her head, she looked at him curiously and found that he had a _thunderous_ look on his face as he growled out in an dark tone.

"He's responsible? What about the other enhancements? Are _those_ his fault too?"

She blinked at him, her mind trying to process the suddenly furious and enraged look on his face as something within her mind screamed out in warning, causing her to want to run. He must have noticed the freaked out look on her face before she could mask it, because he tightened his grip on her arm a tad.

It wasn't hard enough to hurt or even bruise her, not by a long shot. He'd have to have a _lot_ of bone breaking force present in his grip to hurt someone like her any. But it was definitely forceful enough to make her put some actual effort forth just escape his grip. _If_ she were to really try to escape anyways.

If, of course was the operative word here.

Hearing him growl something else, the fur on her tail bristled and stood on end as she suddenly found herself being man handled into a nearby alley. Where upon pushing her inside of it a little ways, he abruptly released her arm and took up an impressively intimidating stance in front of her with that same look on his face.

"Well, is he?" He asked again.

"Just for two of them." She replied in a hesitant tone, half expecting him to start yelling or something. But instead he simply gave her another incredulous look and echoed with a frown,

"Just two of them."

Ichigo wasn't sure what he was fishing for exactly.

Sure she could easily blame Kisuke for two of her enhancements, but they had been life saving operations that had stabilized her after Aizen had managed to get his hands on her while she'd been unconscious. And yes, she did totally blame him for the whole 'cat' parts and heat.

And though she wasn't overly fond of them, she had figured out why he had done them around the time she'd found out that she would be going into heat.

After all, when she'd gone to the doctor she had had to inform him about being injured when she was thirteen and how her organs had been badly damaged. And her previous doctor had told her that it would be incredibly difficult, if not impossible for her to ever even have children.

And knowing Kisuke like she did... The man had likely found out some how and decided to_ fix_ the problem the only way that he could think of. The whole cat ears and tail thing were probably just his way of tweaking her nose a little bit while trying to make her look less intimidating.

Or at least, she_ hoped_ that was the reason for the cat ears and tail.

Because he already had several strikes against him for the 'heat' crap and she really _would_ geld him with a rusty, poison laced spoon if there was no reason whatsoever for the damned ears and tail. After all, did the man have _any_ goddamned idea how traumatized she had been when her human ears had fallen off? She seriously doubted it.

"Just two of them." Toshinori said again, the wheels in his head turning furiously. The doctor at Might Tower hadn't specified how many modifications had been done on her exactly but from the man acted...it had been a significantly higher number than just two. "How many modification have been done on you? Do you know?"

Ichigo squeaked as he suddenly asked her this.

To be perfectly honest, she wasn't really sure how many times she'd been modified. She wasn't aware of all of the stuff done to her sometimes. She should be, but it was like her brain just tended to check out and refused to work right afterwards. That and she also seemed to lose lengths of time. She knew this because of the gaps here and there in her memory. So...she gave him a round about estimate.

"As far as I can figure, the number that I'm actually aware of is somewhere between six and eight." It wasn't an absolute uneducated guess. Nor was it a lie.

She watched his eyes widen in realization as he sputtered out in- was it outrage or disbelief?

"S-Six and e-eight?! Was whoever did the rest of the modifications absolutely insane?!" Ichigo didn't bother saying anything to his question because well...Aizen was probably one of the craziest motherfuckers she'd ever come across.

Crazier than Kenpachi and even Ikkaku. And they frigging _hunted_ people for sport from time to time and killed them. But Aizen...he was a whole special brand of crazy that_ no one_ could touch. Even she couldn't match him.

And she was part Hollow!

Toshinori got weirdly quiet for a heartbeat or so before then sighing and running a hand through his hair in frustration before asking, "I'm assuming that Kisuke wasn't the only person who modified you. Who was the other one? And where can I find them?"

Stiffening slightly at the mere idea of Toshinori trying to go after Aizen, a low and threatening growl escaped her throat and she moved into his personal space, watching as he tried to stare her down in the same angry intimidating manner as before- and failed.

For some reason, her unblinking stare made him feel the need to back up and stay quiet. It wasn't so much because it was intimidating. But more because- she had the eyes of something that was more beast than human. A _predator_.

It was downright freaky, and yes, it did scare him a little bit.

"Look at me." She said, there was a strange duality to her voice that startled him a little bit. Almost as if there were another person speaking with her. Curious, he lifted his eyes to hers and nearly recoiled at the gold and black stare that locked with his own. His mouth went dry, and his heart picked up speed in his chest. The pounding of it was nearly painful from the many times his heat beat against his ribs in dread as she slowly said, "Aizen is _my_ demon to slay. You aren't to go near him."

He slowly nodded his head and she let out a quiet huff as her eyes returned to normal and she blinked at him before then saying. "I won't have you trying to apprehend him Toshinori, he'd rip you to pieces and bathe in your blood just to hurt me. Now stop asking me about things that I hate speaking of and lets just go. I'm tired and I think I need to get some rest before I lose my temper."

He didn't say anything, merely nodded again and let her go ahead of him out of the alley before silently trailing along after her. He'd ask her about this later on. But only out of a sense of self preservation.


	21. Chapter 21

Toshinori stared at Ichigo oddly as she lay curled up on the couch, resting.

She'd been there for a little while now since they had returned from their outing and he wasn't sure exactly how to approach her after what had happened in the alley. Wracking his brain, he tried to think of how everything had gone so...weird.

Everything had been going so well when they had left this morning. He'd learned that she was made to be a mother- honestly she was so good at the whole mothering thing that he was a tad bit envious. He'd learned a little bit more about her family. Her man child father. And the fact that she had two younger sisters who were twins. _Twins!_

That was definitely something that she might have needed to mention beforehand.

Not that it changed his plans _any_. One baby or two, it made no difference to him. He'd love his child/children regardless of how many of them there were.

And then he had gotten angry and overly curious when she'd mentioned that...Kisuke _bastard_ again, and he'd ruined everything. He knew that there was still a lot about Ichigo that he didn't know and all, but he wanted to know her. To know her past, her present, and her hopes and dreams for the future. Her family, her friends- the bastards responsible for modifying her...

He wanted to know _everything_.

But after earlier, he was also just a little bit scared of her. Not...truly scared, mind you. He'd been up against villains that scared him far more than she possibly could.

But at the same time, he was certainly scared enough to not want to walk down a dark alley if she was waiting for him at the other end of it. Something told him that if he ever did, and she was upset like she'd been earlier- he was sure that once she caught him- his undignified, dying screams would probably _echo_ across the city.

So, here he was just sort of hiding out in his kitchen- where he totally wasn't_ hoarding_ anything like the left over sweets, and the fridge. Because for all he knew the end was nigh- _watching_ her like a hawk from his position, partially hidden by the island.

"Toshinori?" Her voice finally called out, startling him so badly that he literally tripped over his own feet and fell in an effort just to stand up.

He yelped as he hit the floor on his stomach. And then went totally still when the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end and he slowly turned his head to see her crouched down on the island, looking over the edge of it right at him.

"Good lord you're fast." He blurted out in shock- because honestly he wasn't sure how she had even managed to move so fast, much less climb up there without making any flipping sound. _Did she just teleport?_ _To find me?_ He wondered curiously as she blinked at him before slowly climbing down off of the island and kneeling down next to him. Her garnet colored eyes looking him over _carefully_ for any signs of pain or injury.

"Are you alright?" She asked after a heartbeat or so.

"Y-Yes."

"Good." She said with a nod as she reached out and took hold of one of his arms, right around where his elbow was, and then stood up and tugged him up too. She may not have tugged him totally up off of the floor, but she'd given him a decent head start by getting him up onto his knees so that eh could get up a little bit easier.

"You want to tell me what you're doing hanging out here in the kitchen and shooting me funny looks?" She asked once he was finally on his feet again.

He blinked at her while trying to figure out how to tell her that he was simply hanging out, just_ thinking_... And somehow wondering if the start of the apocalypse would be a good deterrent to asking her anymore questions.

"Toshi." She said again, this time shortening his name to get his attention.

"Uh...yeah?"

"It's okay if you're a little bit freaked out."

"I'm not freaked out!" He said quickly. Not wanting to give her the impression that he was terribly bothered by what had happened before.

"Then why are you hanging out in here acting like you got a killer zombie, or a demon or something hanging out in the living room?"

"I-I was just wondering what would happen during a zombie apocalypse. You know, like what sort of stuff would happen and-"

"A lot of dumbasses would die. Frat boys, stupid people- likely some girls with obscenely big tits and no real brain cells to speak of, people that border on vegetable-esque. So...if such a thing were to actually happen, more than half of the population would die pretty much overnight. And-" He couldn't help but gape at her in horror.

She rolled her eyes at him and reached out to place her fingertips against the underside of his jaw, and used them to force his mouth shut. "If your so horrified by the turn of conversation, then you shouldn't bring such things up in the first place," She said as she dropped her hand away from his jaw before then asking seriously, "Do you want me to leave? I mean, am I bothering you or something?"

His eyes widened a little bit in dismay at the question as his hand shot out and wrapped around the nape of her neck and he tugged her in close and growled out in a fierce tone. _"No. Never." _Before then asking her in a slightly saddened tone. "D-Do you want to leave?"

"No," She replied in a small tone before tacking on. "I just thought that since you seem to be uncomfortable- I just wanted to ask you and make sure."

"I'm not uncomfortable. And I'm sorry that I made you think that I was."

She thinned her lips a little bit and shrugged her shoulders. As if to say, 'I'm used to it.'

Which made his heart ache a little bit in his chest as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her up against his chest and let her rest her head on his shoulder.

She was still tired. Even though she hadn't really been resting all that much when she had been on the couch. She'd been too busy keeping track of his chaotic emotions and listening to his every small shuffle. If not for the fact that she had been acutely aware of the fact that he was watching her- she likely would have actually taken a nap for a little bit.

He seemed to know this, because after being held for several long minutes, he bent down a little bit and swept her up in his arms and carried her back over to the couch and sat down on it and placed her in his lap.

Once that was done, and he was certain that she would be comfortable where she was, he reached up and tucked a few silken strands of her dark hair back behind her ears as he suggested quietly, "Why don't you get some rest. I think I'll sit here for a little while, hold you and watch some TV. I'll even keep the volume down so that it doesn't bother you any."

Ichigo nodded her head and then took a moment to lean up a tad to nuzzle the underside of his jaw in an affectionate manner before settling back down and closing her eyes.


	22. Chapter 22

After sitting down at Might Tower the other day and hearing everything being said about the young woman- as well as taking note of Toshinori's reaction to her situation... Nezu had been attempting to do research of Toshinori's Ichigo. And had finally found something after days of endless searching.

Though he hadn't been expecting to find exactly what he had, he was enthralled by the pictures and video that some people had managed to take nevertheless.

The video that he was watching now, was dated almost ten months before her arrival in Musutafu.

Around the time several major earthquakes had rocked Japan and caused _billions_ of dollars in catastrophic damages. Yet strangely, despite this fact, no one had been killed or lost.

The people that many of the rescue services and hero's had dug out of the ruins and rubble had been placed in a state of suspended animation inside of peculiar glowing orbs that had faded away after about a week or so. Leaving the people inside of them without any memory of what had happened to them.

Among other, slightly more_ eerie_ things.

And he was beginning to suspect why the more that he watched the video on his computer. When looking up Toshinori's Ichigo, there had been only _one_ Ichigo Kurosaki in all of Japan that had matched the age, gender, and name of the young woman.

Though the fact that he'd managed to come across some actual pictures of the young woman as a teenager, had helped greatly. Honestly, she hadn't changed all that much in the past few years. The last picture that was taken of her was shown in a newspaper clipping in the Karakura Town Gazette that had been labeled, **Karakura's Guardian**. And had been an interesting article to read indeed. But the picture attached to it- had been even more telling.

The picture was probably the most perfect one that he'd come across so far. And it intrigued him greatly.

In it, the girl had to have been no older than thirteen or so. She'd been smaller, thinner, her hair had been cut short like a boy's and was the same strawberry blond as it had been the day that Toshinori had first laid his eyes on her. She was also shown holding a large fireball back with a massive, black bladed sword.

She was bloody, and bruised. And he wouldn't swear to it, but he thought that one of her arms must have been broken. There was a bone sticking out of torn flesh several inches just above her elbow.

And there were at least a dozen or so people cowering behind her. Each of them wearing varying expressions of fear, terror, horror, and even resignation.

Ichigo herself had worn an expression of grim determination. One that he saw often on the faces of the men and women that worked along side him at U.A. whenever something _big_ happened and their faces were flashed all over the evening news.

She wore the same look that Toshinori had before he'd used up the last of his strength to finally defeat All for One. The same look that practically screamed, _'I'll die before I let this pass'_. Or _'I'll die before I let you hurt anyone else'_, seemed more accurate.

And in the video that he was currently watching, he saw the exact moment that she transcended. Her power- the only way to really describe it's destructiveness was to liken it to a nuclear bomb going off in the middle of a solar flare. Everything around her was leveled for _miles_ by the shockwave.

He paused the video as the person responsible for it managed to get a closeup of her face.

Everything was white and glowing. Her skin, her eyes, even her hair and clothing. It was as if she were a sort of conductor for a massive amount of energy that her body could barely hold back anymore.

He eyed it for a moment longer and then glanced down at the date in the bottom corner of the frame. Yup, the dates lined up. He wasn't sure what scared him more.

The fact that she could make an entire country shake and tremble in such violence. The fact that she could cause so much damage so easily that it was felt everywhere all around the country. Or the fact that she'd managed to do it without _killing_ anyone beyond ground zero.

Either way, the woman bore watching. Especially since Toshinori was attached to her, and she would be bearing him a child. Sighing, he reached out and picked up his phone and dialed Grand Torino's number and asked him to please come to the school. There was something important that he needed to discuss with him.

Once he was assured that the elder was on his way, he then hung up the phone and stared at the image again and wondered to himself, _What are you? _

* * *

Naomasa stared down at the body that had been called in by a security guard working at Might Tower with a disturbed look on his face as he asked again, "And no one noticed anything?"

"No sir." The security guard replied in a slightly ill tone.

Naomasa couldn't say that he blamed the poor guy any. The body that he'd found was _beyond_ simply destroyed. His skin looked as if it had melted right off of him. His organs were liquified, and there was charred flesh everywhere around the destroyed little clearing.

"D-Do you think that he was struck by lightening?" The security guard asked in a shaky tone. Naomasa frowned at the question and looked around the immediate area. There were damaged and charred trees and burnt grass and singed dirt. So it was entirely possible. However there had been no storms of any kind lately.

True, this could have been a simple case of dry lightening striking the poor victim. But the state of his body...it didn't look like a regular lightening strike. And for the amount of damage to the body to have occurred in the first place, then the victim would have had to be struck by lightening _repeatedly_.

And the odds of that happening were astronomical.

"I don't know," He finally replied as the body was slowly loaded up. "Have you reported this to anyone?"

"No sir. I haven't even had a chance to report this to Mr. All Might."

"Then don't." Naomasa said, perhaps a little bit too harshly if the man's flinch was any indication at all.

"Sir?"

"All Might...is in the middle of something important and might not have any time for this for a while. So...just leave him alone."

"O-Oh... Alright then."


	23. Chapter 23

**Lemon! **

**Not a very good one, but still...enjoy.**

* * *

Toshinori's brain must have short circuited on him. It was the only thing that he could think could have possibly _happened_ just now. And here was why.

Ichigo had been curled up in his lap asleep for at least an hour in a half while he watched some TV when shit got...well not really weird- but definitely _distracting_. And he didn't even know what started it either! All he could seem to think at the moment was that she looked so cute and innocent. And then- then her hands started wandering.

It was subtle at first. So much so that he was able to ignore the soft touches and stuff for a little while. But then he got curious when he felt her squirm in his lap and cool air brushed against the skin of his stomach.

Looking down at her, he frowned when he felt her fingers leaving feather light touches along the waistband of his pants. He reached down to remove her hand, part of him wondering what brought this on. While another part of him simply wanted to leave her be.

After all, she was _asleep_.

Maybe she was simply having an exciting dream of some kind. Removing her small hand from his body had almost physically hurt him.

He couldn't help it, it wasn't very often at all that he indulged in anything remotely sexual in nature. And despite having helped Ichigo through her heat and the fact that she was currently carrying their first baby- he was reluctant to allow himself to indulge in sexual activities with her again.

At least for the time being.

Partially because he didn't know what she wanted. Did the fact that he was willing to stick around and help raise their baby make them partners? Significant others? Did she even _like_ him in that way?

Sure she was affectionate.

But not as much as he was. He tended to cross small lines without meaning too. Stealing hugs, giving her chaste kisses, and little touches here and there. And sure, she hadn't pushed him away any or even told him to stop- but did that really matter?

Did he really have any reason or right to do such things?

Toshinori was an affectionate person by nature. And Ichigo….well...he wasn't sure if she appreciated such things much. He might have asked, but the fact that she didn't push him away or told him _no_ had to mean something. Right? He just wasn't entirely certain about what it meant. All he knew was that it felt like a permission of sorts.

But what if he was wrong?

What if now that her heat had been taken care of she didn't- He jumped a little bit when he felt her hand snake down the front of his pants and coughed up some blood in surprise as he felt her small hand awkwardly wrap around his cock.

Looking wide eyed at her sleeping face, he muttered several inventive curses and quickly tried to remove her hand from him before he got hard and this became even more awkward. However no sooner than he removed her hand from himself again, she grabbed his hand and slipped his hand down the front of her pants.

His face positively flamed with embarrassment as she deftly maneuvered his long fingers to stroke her damp core through her panties and he let out a weird little whine as she somehow managed to move her panties aside some and pressed one of his fingers inside of her.

He choked and damned near dropped her while slapping his free hand to his mouth in an effort to stave off a coughing fit that he felt coming on as her inner muscles clamped down on his finger. Honestly he didn't know what to do here. Should he wake her up? He would imagine that she might be upset if he let things go any further.

But either way he imagined that he was going to go to hell for _something_.

He violently twitched as he felt her hand slip back inside of his pants and wrap around his growing erection- oh god, was he actually getting turned on by_ this_? _How much of a pervert am I?_ He wondered in dismay as she pumped him a few times.

"Shit, Ichigo-" He nearly shouted as he felt her fingertips play with his slit and bit his lower lip to bite back a groan when he saw that her other hand had moved to her left breast.

He made a funny high pitched inhuman sound, his eyes widening as his breath began to get ragged. He licked his lips, cringing a little bit when he tasted the blood that he'd not bothered to wipe away just yet. He was a tad bit fixated on what her wicked little hands were doing to them both.

So much so that he missed her cracking an eye open to look at his face. The silly man was still trying to fight what she was doing to him, but was slowly giving in. Closing her eye back, she feigned sleep again and kept working him over hoping that this would quiet his thoughts for a little while.

Toshinori was very distracted by what Ichigo's hands were doing to both of their bodies. He kept twitching and trying to bite back the sounds of pleasure that she was eliciting from him. His eyes stayed fixed on her other hand and her breast.

Her fingers were deftly teasing the tightened little nub of her nipple through her shirt. His mouth went dry as he imagined his own hand taking it's place.

Ichigo twitched a little bit as she caught onto the sudden shift in his train of thought. _Jesus he had such a dirty mind for such a shy and awkward guy_. She thought as her ears twitched upon picking up the rabid beating of his heart. Her own breath stuttered a little bit as she flitted through his thoughts, letting him show her_ everything_ that he wanted to do to her.

His mind was weirdly unfiltered. Which was probably just one reason why she found herself responding to his thoughts like she was. Her body slowly becoming more and more excited the more she let him feed her lust with his own.

Finally she couldn't take anymore and she let out a little growl of annoyance because here she was trying to do something nice for him and he was making her lose control of herself. She didn't _like_ being out of control. People got hurt whenever she was out of control.

And the last thing she wanted was to accidentally hurt him.

His eyes flew to her face in alarm the second that he heard her growl, and he started to panic a little bit as her hand removed itself from his pants and settled firmly on his shoulder, pushing him back against the couch a little bit while she slowly sat up and then moved so that she straddled his hips.

His eyes were wide, and dazed as he looked at her. His mouth was open slightly, his breath still a bit ragged, his throat worked as if he were trying to find the words to apologize.

She didn't want his damned apology. She wanted him to _see_ what she saw when she looked at him. For a man who spent a good portion of his life training to be a hero- Toshinori was remarkably lacking in self confidence and esteem. It didn't all have to do with his present health either.

It was...as if he didn't know his own self worth unless he was doing his work as a hero.

It pissed her off.

"I-Ichigo-" He finally managed to say, his tone questioning as he wiped the blood from his mouth with a shaky hand.

"You think so loudly sometimes," She muttered before leaning in and pressing her mouth to his throat. Feeling his pulse jump at the contact she felt emboldened to continue. "You worry too much about labels for this. And if I didn't want you touching me- I would have broken something by now." She said as she ran her tongue along his jugular, one of her hands moving to tangle itself in his thick blond hair so that she could hold his head back so that she had better access to his skin.

The skin of his throat and stomach were sensitive to things like touch. The smallest whisper of breath against his skin, the lightest scrape of teeth, the sensual way that she had just run her tongue along his throat- they tied him in knots internally.

His hand came up to rest on her hips, his grip belying his nervousness. She could feel his body twitch and tremble as she ground herself against his confined erection. Her hips rocking gently against him, eliciting a soft gasp from him as she slowly removed her hand from his hair and then sat back a little bit, stilling against his crotch and causing him to look at her with unrestrained longing as she slowly lifted her shirt up and pulled it over her head.

He swallowed hard as she dropped the fabric onto the floor and then wrapped her arms around his neck. Her bra clad breasts pressed flush against his chest as she said softly, "If you want to touch me, Toshi then touch me."

He needed no other urging from her.

He moved so fast that she was barely able to track him. His mouth hungrily claiming her own as he wrapped his arms tightly around her slender frame as he stood up taking her with him. She wrapped her legs around his waist out of instinct, making him give a small noise of approval as he moved her so that she was lying under him on the couch.

It took a little bit of maneuvering on his part, given his size and all. But finally he got her right where he wanted her. Nice and comfortable on her back underneath him.

Finally breaking the kiss, he braced himself on one hand over her so that he wouldn't accidentally crush her with his weight. Ichigo had this fetching pink blush coloring her cheeks a pretty pink, her lips pink lips had turned a rosy coral and were swollen and wet from his kiss. Her garnet colored eyes were glazed over a little bit.

Hooking a finger underneath her chin, he tipped her head back a little bit and then leaned down to pay her the same attention that she had given to him before. "Sweet girl." He muttered against her throat as he pressed little wet open mouthed kisses against her skin.

She gasped and arched her back, pressing herself more fully against him when he lightly bit down on the place where she shoulder and neck met. The feel and taste of her was intoxicating to him and going straight to his head.

He_ loved_ it.

Hooking his fingers beneath the strap of her bra, he tugged it down her arm as he moved lower to nuzzle and lay kisses on the swells of her breasts. She cried out when his mouth latched onto one of her nipples and suckled, her hands coming up- one to grab at his hair while the other settled on one of his biceps, where her fingernails dug into his skin.

He used his free hand to unfasten her jeans and slip his hand into her panties and cup her wet sex. His fingers deftly stroking her, feeling the growing wetness coating his fingertips as she pressed herself into his hand a bit more, seeking relief as he slipped his finger inside of her. She gasped at the slight invasion and squirmed a little bit.

He lifted his head, finally releasing her nipple from his mouth and looked at her.

"Something wrong?" He asked in a breathless voice.

"N-Need you, Toshi."

He nodded his head in understanding, and moved back a little bit as he removed his hand from her and quickly stripped her of her jeans and panties before then pulling off his own clothing. Returning to his prior position so that he could give her a sweet kiss and tell her to let him know if she wanted to stop. She nodded her head, and he carefully wrapped one of her legs around his hips as he slowly pressed his cock into her slick heat inch by inch.

_God she's so tight._ He thought as he paused for a moment once he had half of his length inside of her. How she could still be as tight as a vice after taking his cock before, he would never know. Giving a small experimental movement of his hips, he tried to see if he was hurting her any. And was relieved to find that he wasn't.

He moved slowly at first, and then gradually picked up his pace. Pressing himself deeper and deeper inside of her until he felt himself bottom out inside of her. She clung to him, using his shoulder to muffle the cute cries and squeaks that she made as he fucked her.

He knew the moment that she reached climax, she clamped down on his cock so tightly- her body milking him and bringing about his own end. He held as she shook and slowly went limp in his grasp and pressed kisses to her forehead, cheeks and lips as he slowly withdrew from her body and sat back on his heels as small smile curving his lips.

Yes, his brain short circuited on him. And he was so very glad that it did.


	24. Chapter 24

A while later the two of them sat curled up together on the floor eating some pizza that he'd ordered since for them since Ichigo had told him that she didn't want to move. And yeah, he could have cooked for them both- but why risk poisoning them with something that was clearly toxic and unfit for human consumption?

Especially since this was a much safer alternative.

So instead they'd ordered out again. After which he'd gone and collected a small variety of some of the sweets that she'd made as well as some drinks. And the two of them had made a small picnic area where they'd sat in their underwear and just relaxed until the pizza arrived.

"So- any ideas on what we should do now?" Ichigo asked as she took a bite of her bacon, ham, red onion, and cheese pizza. He frowned for a moment, unsure about what she meant before it clicked with him and he nodded his head in understanding.

_This is going to be a somewhat stressful talk_. He thought to himself as he licked some of the tomato sauce from his lips almost nervously. They would have to go over a multitude of things concerning their relationship (or lack there of) living arrangements, work, and other things.

"Where do you want to start?" He asked. She shrugged her shoulders slightly and frowned for a moment.

"What seems to be the most important subject at the moment?"

"Uh..." Was all that he could think of to say for several heartbeats as Ichigo snorted in amusement and shook her head at him before deciding to help him out a little bit.

"How about, relationship first?" She suggested. He snapped his mouth shut and took a deep breath as his anxiety levels spiked a little bit. "What do you want out of this? I mean, where do you see us in like two years or something?" She asked curiously.

"Well...with our baby, mostly. I mean, I can easily imagine us taking turns doing nighttime feedings, changing poopy diapers, running to the doctor every time our son-"

"We'll have a daughter." Ichigo said, cutting him off.

He blinked at her, and cocked his head to the side some and studied her for a moment. She sounded so sure that they would have a girl instead of a boy. Granted he didn't really care what gender the baby was as long as it was healthy.

But still...way to rain on his parade.

"You sound so sure."

"I am. Unless we wind up with twins. And then we'll probably have both a boy _and_ a girl. Either way, I hope the baby has your eyes."

"My eyes?" He asked almost dumbly.

She hummed as she took another bite of her pizza, her tail twitching a little bit before she said, "They're pretty."

He gave her a goofy grin at the compliment and thought, _She thinks my eyes are pretty! _He liked her garnet colored eyes himself, and could easily imagine a little girl with the same colored ones and maybe blond hair like his, running around.

"Anyways," He said, deciding to pick up where he left off. "Taking our daughter to the doctor every time she gets the sniffles, coming home from work to tea parties, family dinners, birthday parties with a ton of rug rats running around screaming and laughing-"

"You're really in this for the long haul aren't you?" Ichigo asked, her tone was neither upset nor shocked. It was just...tinted with something unnamable for the moment.

"Is that a bad thing?"

"No. But it is somewhat helpful to know where you're coming from." She said.

"What about you? Where do you see us in two years?" He asked as he took another bite of his own food and waited patiently for her to respond.

"Well, I can see us and the baby- maybe a new house. One with a yard and a swing set and a seesaw that she would con us into playing on with her before dinner. Maybe a decent, steady job with flexible hours. Either something artsy, or musical. I'd teach her how to cook..."

"Do you want to get married?" He asked. Feeling that it was simply something that he should ask. She shrugged her shoulders again before slowly replying.

"I do. But...not right now. I kind of want everything to settle a bit more before I even think about marriage."

He nodded his head in understanding, able to read between the lines enough to tell that while marriage was something that she did want inevitably, they still didn't know each other well. And while they may seem compatible for the moment- it was mostly due to the fact that they were in a 'honeymoon' phase. Once it passed, there was no telling what would happen.

Some people tended to grow closer, and others simply drifted apart.

"Alright, so...what are we, seems to be the big question here?" He finally said as he looked at her. She locked eyes with him and set her pizza aside for the moment.

"What are we?"

"That is what I asked."

"I dunno. What do you think we should be? What are our options?"

"Well, since there's a baby on the way...and I'm sticking around to help raise it- we could be dating, partners-"

"I wouldn't know what to do with a boyfriend. But I'm not totally opposed to having one." Ichigo said seriously. Toshinori felt his face heat up some before asking weakly,

"S-So dating?"

"Sure. O-Okay." A million different thoughts filtered through his mind all at once. One of which was to change his Facebook status from single. Maybe take a picture of the two of them together to add to his timeline too._ No_\- he had bigger concerns than that.

_Focus, Toshinori. Focus! _

"So what next?"

"Living arrangements, I think. You mentioned needing to think about what you wanted to do with your apartment."

"Yeah, I thought that with a baby on the way- that I might need to move somewhere with a little bit more room and stuff. My current apartment isn't exactly made for two people. Let alone three."

"Three?" He questioned.

"Yeah, I thought that even if we don't totally get the living arrangements hammered out- then I could look for a place with two extra rooms. One for the baby and the other for you."

"Are you asking me to move in with you?"

"No. But I wasn't sure about what you would feel comfortable with. So I wanted an extra spare room as an _option_ just in case." He hummed, unable to totally squash down the feelings of disappointment as she went on to explain. "The whole reason for you to have a bedroom is because I think you're the kind of guy that doesn't like letting the person carrying his offspring out of his sight for very long-" She was giving him a pointed look. He gave her an unrepentant grin knowing that she was right. He _was_ that kind of guy. Still, he held his tongue. "You would worry too much and feel the need to check on me and stuff."

Again, she wasn't wrong.

"So, the spare bedroom would be a compromise of sorts. It would allow us to take some time to live together for a little bit, like maybe a few days a week, and see if we'd drive each other totally and unbearably nuts. Also when we aren't sleeping beside one another it would give you a place to lay your head since my couch is short."

It was a pretty decent compromise as far as he could tell. A chance to get to know her in her own habitat without tripping over each other or driving each other crazy. The extra room would be good for their relationship too if either of them got upset with each other. Especially since it would allow them some extra space before they went for each other's throats.

"I could fix an extra room for you at my place too. You could even bring some of your clothes and stuff over that way you'll have them on hand."

"I was just about to suggest that. You could stay with me one weekend- maybe from Friday to Sunday- and I would stay with you the one after. I thought that it might be best to do this for a few months and see how things go. If all goes well then maybe after a few months we could try living together...fulltime. Ya know?"

"That's a good idea, sweetheart. Now, what about work? What do you want to do there?"

"Well aside from the upcoming music gigs...I don't really have anything planned as far as work goes. I was thinking of maybe doing some stuff at home-"

"Cooking stuff?" Toshinori asked hopefully as he popped a sweet into his mouth and then let out a groan. _Oh my god, I think I just had a foodgasm. _He thought as he slowly chewed the piece of sweet sugary goodness. "Oh god, please tell me that it's cooking stuff because these sweets are _delicious_."

"Uh...no." She said with a soft laugh at his ridiculously disappointed expression.

He let out a small whine, "What?! Why not? I bet you could make _millions_ off of these little babies alone."

"As much as stress cooking helps me think, it isn't what I want to do with my life."

"Okay, that's fair. So what do you want to do?"

"Well, something artsy or musical. It's a tad bit difficult to pick between the two since I like both equally. But for the time being, maybe I could take up some artsy stuff as a hobby. Figure out what all I'm good at and go from there."

"You sure that you don't want to do anything cooking related? Cause I might be able to get you a job as a Home EC teacher. I know a bunch of kids at U.A. that need to learn how to cook _without_ setting water on fire. Because unless they learn something- I fear for the future of heroes everywhere. Especially if those kids finally manage to set the world on fire."

Ichigo just laughed.


	25. Chapter 25

**Toshinori is a little bit...weird in this chap. **

**He's still a sweetheart, just super worried about Ichigo living away from him while pregnant and it's making him act out. And throw weird tantrums.**

* * *

Over the course of next few days both of them went about trying to find a place for Ichigo to move into close to where Toshinori lived. Toshi would have preferred a place for her right next to his own home. But she had vetoed that suggestion on the premise that they _would_ wind up tripping over each other far too often.

He wasn't entirely sure why she had that idea.

But he didn't bother to argue with her any since she was probably right anyways. Especially since if she did move in next to his home, he'd probably make an absolute and utter nuisance of himself by going over to her home everyday.

Hell, even he knew that he'd be there every hour if he thought that she'd let him get away with it any. Which she probably already knew and that was why she refused to move in next to his home.

Which was…._terrible_. He wasn't going to act like it wasn't no matter how immature it seemed. _It. Was. Terrible_. And nothing that Ichigo nor anyone else did or said would ever convince him otherwise. So there.

So, here he was walking through a nice, cozy cottage style two story house that was for sale. It was located like a block from his own home. But with Ichigo in her current condition- if anything ever _happened_ while he wasn't around- a mere block could feel like a stretch straight into forever to him.

Especially if she was hurt and called him for help.

This insane scenario played over and over in his head and damned near drove him crazy with worry. Causing him to make a huge list of pro's and con's to present her with upon the next moment that they had alone.

In the meantime, he was totally dead set on _hating_ the house that they were currently checking out. Which was both incredibly hard to do- especially when he kept catching Ichigo's 'kid on Christmas morning' expression- and _not. _It was stupid, but he kept feeling these bizarre surges of jealousy every time he caught her fingers ghosting along a piece of furniture.

_Is it even possible to be jealous of furniture?_ He wondered to himself before deciding that he was being ridiculous.

"I love this house." Ichigo said once she finished inspecting the room that they were both currently standing in. "It's perfect! It has a yard, three rooms-" He grumbled, intent to not allow himself to act like a _total_ pushover here. He was firmly set on having her move in next door to him and nothing at all was going to change his mind otherwise. "It's got a decent layout, a security system- I can already imagine myself living here." She said, sounding suspiciously more than just happy.

He gritted his teeth for a moment and cast his gaze around the room. Hating that she seemed to have already caught onto his shenanigans after dragging him to see two other houses. Although to be fair, he hadn't exactly been subtle about his intentions to begin with.

In fact he'd been incredibly _bold_ about things. Even going so far as to push down a whole section of wall in the last home that they'd looked at and then declared it 'unsafe' due to a termite infestation and then grabbed her and ran.

He was pretty sure that the legal department at Might Tower was going to get a call from the person selling that house. But he didn't really think of that when he pushed the wall down.

"I think I'm going to see if I can talk the agent down some." She said, and he quickly stopped looking around the room and silently wishing that a meteor would strike the house and obliterate it, and looked at her. She was smiling so evilly right then that-

"You're fucking with me, aren't you?" He asked in dismay. Wondering when his girl had decided that _playing_ with his mind like this was a good idea? He was literally one breath away from setting this place on fucking fire! And why the hell hadn't he realized that she was toying with him sooner?

He wasn't that unobservant. Was he?

Growling at her in a menacing manner, he took a step towards her only for her to laugh and quickly move back. He followed her, dogging her every step until he had her backed against the wall where he pinned her between it and his body.

"It's not nice to play games with me, Ichigo." He growled at her, the sound making his chest rumble as he leaned his head down so that he could press his mouth against her forehead. Taking a little bit of solace in the small amount of contact. "I've been literally dying to say something since we got here."

She sniggered at him. "I know. I've been waiting for you to explode for a while now."

He grunted and mumbled something about 'frigging witchy cat women' and then moved back a step or so and let her go so that he could continue to look around and hate the place.

What dark god did he have to pray to for that damned meteor to appear anyways? _Satan? _

"I know that you're set on me moving in next to your home. But I still firmly believe that _not_ living right next door to you is a good idea."

"And why is that?" He demanded, sounding a little bit more annoyed than he meant to. Ichigo didn't react any to the harshness of his words any. In fact, she didn't even flinch. Which both pleased and vexed him immensely. But for very different reasons.

"Have you forgotten exactly who you are, Toshi?" She asked as she tilted her head to the side a little bit, her black furred ears twitching ever so slightly. He visibly flinched, because _yeah_\- there for a moment he had sort of forgotten. Mainly because she treated him just like any other normal guy and not the former pro-hero that he was. "You used to be All Might. You know, the guy who has the press camping out on his front lawn everyday even now. Trying to get a peek at the everyday life of the man who was once the most respected and awe inspiring hero of all time."

Well crap, when she said things like that then he could definitely see why she didn't want to live right next to him. The press getting a picture of her- and inevitably the baby bump that she would be sporting in a few months- would be bad on so many levels. And _not_ because he was ashamed of their relationship either.

He was a man who had enemies. A shit ton of them.

And having Ichigo's face, as well as her future baby bump plastered all over the news was just plain bad on so many frigging levels. Especially since someone would inevitably put two and two together and would likely announce their relationship to the world.

"What if I quite my job and the two of us move out of the city?" He said this with a hopeful note to his voice. However he hadn't really bothered to totally think it through.

There were like a million different reasons why _that_ wouldn't happen. Like the fact that there wouldn't be any immediate help if anything happened.

Ichigo got chased by an animal and inevitably maimed or partially eaten- then there would be no way to get her any help in time. Both she and the baby would likely die.

"Never mind. That was a stupid suggestion." He said with a scowl, mentally kicking himself for not thinking that one through.

"It's not stupid, Toshi." She said as she walked over to him and wrapped her arms around his torso and tucker herself against his front and let out a contented purr. He huffed quietly and wrapped his arms around her, and felt some of his stress slipping away bit by bit. It was a slow process.

Like agonizingly so.

But he still appreciated her efforts to make him feel better anyways.

Finally he asked, "This isn't something that I can win, is it?"

"Nope."

Still clinging to what little bit of hope that he had left to convince her, he said. "This is a prime location for a house fire or meteor strike-"

"Toshinori." She said warningly. "If anything happens to my new home-"

He grimaced as he muttered sullenly. "_Fine_. I won't pray to the dark gods for a meteor," She made a feral sounding growl and released him so that she could pushed him a little bit. Earning an overly dramatic sigh from him as he mumbled, "And I won't call Endeavor to ask him to set the place on fire either." Before then adding in a determined tone. "But this doesn't mean that I've given up on getting you to live closer to me than...a block." He growled out the word_ block_ as if it were the vilest thing in the world earning a small headshake from her as she turned and then started towards the door to go find the agent.

The moment that she was gone, Toshinori huffed again and then tilted his head back so that he was looking up at the ceiling and idly wondered if he could get away with putting one of the dressers in the room through the ceiling.

Barely ten minutes later, he found himself being banned from the premises when the agent and Ichigo both caught him trying to push the dresser through the ceiling in the bedroom.

The agent was...understandably upset. I mean, he was trying to damage a home that the guy was trying to sell. He'd be pretty pissed too in his place, he supposed.

But Ichigo, she hadn't really seemed all that surprised by his actions. She'd merely given him a look and said, "Really Toshi?" And that was it.

He was still trying to figure out whether she was super mad at him or not for the stunt. So here he was, hanging out on the soon-to-be-front yard. Looking at the house as if he...well, to be honest he was _still_ looking for that fucking meteor.

Seriously, what dark god did he have to _talk_ to about that?

Were the dumbasses on a lunch break or something? I mean, how frigging hard could it be for a god- _any_ god- to hurl a fucking meteor through space and destroy one measly little house?

Huffing in irritation at the whole damned situation, he stood there with a thunderous look on his face. Silently trying to see if he could will the damned thing to blow up or something when Ichigo came walking outside looking pleased with herself.

He growled and wondered if anyone would hold it against him if this once- he acted like a villain and did something way out of left field and utterly terrible. He could explain to any authorities his reasons. Hell he could even explain it to any judges that might get involved that it _really_ was for the better that the event happened.

After all, if he had some sort of emotional melt down- what did everyone think would _happen_? He certainly wasn't going to frolic through the streets smiling and happy that's for damned sure.

"Okay, everything is all set! I put a nice down payment on the house and if things go through, then this will be my new home." Ichigo said happily as she walked over to him.

He grumbled a little but didn't really say anything. He was busy mentally screaming, _**WHERE IS MY GODDAMNED METEOR! **_As he wrapped an arm around her slender shoulders and started to lead her away.

"I'm glad that you found a place that appeals to you," Was really all that he could think of to say about it. And the words burned like acid on his tongue. Because that's what happened when he lied. "Do you mind if we go by a book store or something on the way back to the tower?" He asked out of the blue as an idea occurred to him.

If the gods didn't care to destroy the house then maybe-

"I'm planning to grab something to eat myself." Ichigo said before then tacking on sweetly, "And Toshi, while I don't care if you decide to go by the bookstore- if I find any dark alters or magic books lying around- I'll burn them in front of you."

He stiffened a little bit and gave her a slightly startled look. He opened his mouth to ask her how she had known what he was planning, but then abruptly shut it again to keep himself from getting into any more trouble than he already was and merely said, "Yes dear."

Ichigo gave him a slant eyed look and smiled a little bit.

And he could feel the beginnings of fear shooting chills down his spine. _Crap_, he was really in for it once they got back, wasn't he?


End file.
